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THE 

HEROINE S 

OF 

WELSH HISTORY: 

COMPRISING 

Pnurirs grit §itfgii]#trf flota 

OF THE 

CELEBRATED WOMEN OF WALES, 

ESPECIALLY 

THE EMINENT FOR TALENT, THE EXEMPLARY IN CONDUCT, 
THE ECCENTRIC IN CHARACTER, AND THE CURIOUS 
" BY POSITION, OR OTHERWISE ; 

BY y/ 

T. J. LLEWELYN PRICHARD, 

Author of " The Adventures and Vagaries of Twm Short " Editor of 

" The Cambrian Wreath" etc., etc. 



Hail Ladies of Cymru with loveliness blest, 

Fair Sina the faithful, the beautiful Nest, 

Young Morvid of Mona, unfading thy wreath, 

And gallant Gwenllian's who battled till death . 

Mevanwy the maid of Llangollen of old, 

Arid Tydvil the martyr, your tales have been told ; 

Poor ill-fated Bronwen here Pity records, 

While Fleer's base abduction drew thousands of swords. 

Ellen th' armipotent shines in our sphere 

And Lucy of Penal, the fond and sincere ! 

Beauties, and Martyrs, and Heroines — your tales 

As Glory's rays shine round the Genius of Wales- ■ 



Price, Bound in Cloth, Seven Shillings and Sixpence. 



LONDON: 

W. AND F. G. CASH, 5, BISHOPSGATE STREET, (Without.) 

BRISTOL: C. T. JEFFERIES, CANYNGE'S HOUSE, REDCLIFF STREET. 

SWANSEA: WILLIAM MORRIS, STAMP OFFICE, HIGH STREET. 

' 1854. 



n. 



C. T. J^eries, Printer, Canynge's House, 97, liedcliff-street, Bristol. 



DEDICATION. 



i 



TO 

THE VIRTUOUS VOTARIES 

OF 

TRUE WOMANHOOD, 

IN ALL 

ITS GRACES, PURITY, AND EXCELLENCE 

AS CONTRA-DISTINGUISHED FROM 

THE FANTASTIC FOOLERIES AND ARTIFI- 
CIAL CHARACTERISTICS 

OF 

FINE LADYISM 

IN THE MIDDLE WALKS OF LIFE, 

THIS WORK IS DEDICATED 

BY THEIR ARDENT ADMIRER, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PKEFACE. 

[NOT TO BE PASSED OVER UNREAD.] 

As Prefaces are not always honored with a perusal, and as this 
especial one involves a question or two interesting to the reader, I 
have deemed it necessary, for a moment, to bar and obstruct his 
passage to these Memoirs, with the above unusual heading ; which 
however, if fairly entertained, I trust will be found neither imper- 
tinent nor unprofitable. 

Certain parties in our principality, who may be designated the 
fanatics of welsh nationality, have somewhat pertinaciously 
harped upon the question why I have written both this work and my 
"Adventures and Vagaries of Twm Shon Catty" in the English 
rather than the Welsh vernacular, I might reply, although from my 
childhood acquainted with both languages, that a long residence in 
England, and a partiality for its language and literature had decided 
my preference. Such an announcement however would only 
provoke a rejoinder on the comparative antiquity, originality, and 
other imputed merits of the Welsh that would prove as interminable 
as utterly unprofitable. Therefore, as a general reply to all such 
inquiries, in addition to my averment of the decided preference 
which I shall ever entertain for the English, I beg leave to suggest 
the following considerations. In a commercial view of the question 
I have endeavoured to profit by the experience of others, who, to 
their sorrow have discovered that Welsh readers and book buyers 
are so very circumscribed in number that in these times, both 
authors and publishers are severe losers by such experiments as 
publishing books in the Welsh language. One of the latest failures 
in such an attempt has been that of the translator and publisher of 
the very meritorious work, " Chambers's Information for the People, 5 ' 
which fell from the press almost still born. To a certain extent 
the same may be said of the Welsh translation of " Knight's Penny 
Magazine." These are ominous and veritable signs of the times ; 
and should become an emphatic warning to all enthusiastic specu- 
lators in the resuscitate of the dying language of ancient Britain. 

The sound philosophical opinion put forth in the following pas- 
sage (with which I heartily coincide), may go far towards setting 
at rest the question as to the merit or mischief of reviving in 
literature an antiquated and degenerated language, over which Time 



VI. PREFACE. 

is gradually expanding his lethean hand, and suggesting for it after 
an honorable fulfilment of its long-enduring mission, an eternity 
of repose. The quotation is from a letter of the eminent critic, 
William Taylor, of Norwich, the correspondent of the late Dr. 
Southey . 

" It is surely more desirable that the Low Dutch should sink 
into a provincial jargon and gradually disappear, than that it should 
be polished into a classical language. It is already the misfortune 
of modern Europe to possess too many cultivated dialects. The 
Literati, who would keep pace with the progress of the general 
mind, must be acquainted with many of them, and the emergence 
of every new nation into learning and refinement, multiplies the 
elementary toil of each student. It is therefore important that the 
smallest possible number of leading languages should contain the 
whole stock of information and amusement; and that inconsiderable 
districts, such as Holland, Denmark, Piedmont, and Wales, should 
not endeavour to immortalize their respective phraseology, but con- 
tentedly slide into the speech of the larger contiguous nations." The 
critic of the Athenaeum remarks on this, " We would recom- 
mend this passage to the attention of those who would wish to 
revive the Irish language, as a medium of instruction for the 
people." 

In the Preface to Parry's Cambrian Plutarch he remarks: — " It 
is not sufficient that Welshmen have at last learnt to appreciate the 
value of their ancient literary remains, whether of History or Poetry. 
In order to do full justice to their national literature, and to make 
it an object of interest to others, they should divest it of its native 
garb (the Welsh language), and present it to the world in a form 
more qualified to allure the general reader ; namely, an English 
costume." Acting on these suggestions I here present the public 
with the following work ; and proceed to account for some of the 
materials of which it is composed. 

In the year 1824 the late Jonathan Harris, bookseller, of Carmar- 
then, favored me with the loan of an old black letter edition of 
Caradoc of Llancarvon's History of Wales, translated by Dr. 
Powell, interleaved throughout, and copiously full of manuscript 
notes of great value, evidently the result of very extensive anti- 
quarian reading. Whoever had been the former owner of that book 
and the writer of the notes (of whom Mr. Harris possessed no clue, 
having purchased it among many others at various sales), he appears 
to have had access to more matter connected with Welsh history 
than any man, living or dead, whom it has been my fortune to be 



PREFACE. Vll. 

acquainted with, and to have made the best possible use of the trea- 
sures which came in his way ; unless, indeed, instead of placing 
the amount of his reading and observation in notes and comments, 
he had himself written a history of his country, for which great task 
he appears to have been well qualified. The initials I. L. appeared 
in various parts of these notes ; and from the peculiarity of the old 
fashioned hand-writing, browned by time or bad ink, and exhibiting 
occasionally the evidence of the tremulous nerves of advanced life, 
although its general style was stiff, firm, and formal, approaching 
that of the ancient engrossing law hand — gave tokens that the 
writer, whoever he may have been, was decidedly an old man ; pro- 
bably past the period for such a laborious undertaking as the pro- 
duction of a national history, unless by the aid of an amanuensis. I 
copied many of these notes and comments, which included several 
legends and much traditionary matter, fully intending, on my re- visit 
to Carmarthen, to transcribe the whole, or purchase the book, if the 
owner would part with it. On my return however, most unfor- 
tunately, the work was no longer to be found, nor could Mr. Harris 
give any account how he lost it to the day of his death. Ever since 
I have deeply to regret my omission in copying the whole while I 
had the opportunity. 

The information derived from those manuscript notes has enabled 
me to give a fuller account of several of these Heroines of Welsh 
History than I could otherwise have accomplished with the aid of 
all which 1 had collected, either in the British Museum or the pri- 
vate libraries to which I have had access in search of materials for the 
foundation of this work. I have noticed in these Memoirs, as they 
respectively occurred, in what instances I have used these Notes ; 
especially in those of Gwenllian, daughter of Griffith ab Cynan 
and queen of Prince Griffith ab Rhys ab Tewdwr, and of the Lady 
Nest, wife of Bernard de Newmarch. From the same authority I 
derived some interesting traditionary matter relative to '* Mary,. 
Llwyd ;" a barbarous relic of which Heroine has been familiarized \ 
to the public, by the annual custom of parading about a Skeleton \ 
Horse's Head, by a set of low mummers, through the towns and J 
villages of the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, the v Gwent/ 
and Morganwg" of the ancient divisions of the principality. / 

Having now to refer exclusively to the present publication as it 
stands, I therefore solicit attention to the following particulars. At 
the commencement of the undertaking I expected tbe quantity 
which I had prepared for the press would be comprised in a single 
volume of about six hundred pages, or six numbers at one shilling 



each, as promised to the patrons of the work. However, the mosl 
important part of this announcement is, that 1 committed an error 
in my calculation ; for I now find that my written matter, when 
reduced into printed type will run to double the quantity originally 
intended for making the Work complete. Consequently, I have a 
similar portion to offer for a Second Volume ; so that the question to 
be asked and ansivered is, Will the public encourage the continuation 
of the Work to that extent, or must it be limited to the present Volume? 

I am well assured there are many among those who have thus far 
patronized my book that will gladly consent to its extension; gener- 
ously rejoicing in the prospect of so much additional biography of 
our national Female Worthies. Yet, I regret to say, there are 
others, so intensely imbued with the crying vice of our Welshland 
portion of Britain, a most apathetic and most discreditable indif- 
ference — not only to literature in general, and their own country's 
history in particular — but to every thing save and except the accu- 
mulation of property : enjoying no music but the sordid Mammon 
Duet produced by knocking one shilling against another— no 
Choral Harmony but what is produced by the rattling of coin within 
the craving vortex of their money-bags — that will make this small 
affair of mine a question of the pocket, and cause such to hesitate in 
incurring the expense of an additional volume ; without the slightest 
reference to the amount of value received in exchange. To such I 
would say withhold this if it seems good to you — but in the end the 
loss may prove as much yours as my own. When once this head of 
mine, such as it is, is laid low (and the period is not remote), though 
many more gifted may arise, but you will not readily meet another 
so patient under your niggardly patronage — so content to walk the 
same path through regions so unpromising of either laurels or 
profit; — and the more intelligent may yet have to regret the 
encouragement withheld, or niggardly bestowed, from finishing a 
Work that their children may prize more than their dull apathetic 
parents. Be that as it may, for I leave the matter in the hands of 
Providence, having, as the homely phrase goes, other fish to fry and 
to feed upon — i.e. other works to put forth; and shall act according 
to the signs held out to me, either to finish or discontinue the 
Heroines of Welsh History. 

In proof that my materials are far from approaching a state of ex- 
haustion, and that the Tales untold will be as interesting in quality 
as abundant in quantity, I submit the following as a programme of 
the Memoirs which are to form the second volume; — The Princess 
Nest, daughter of Prince Griffith ab Llewelyn, and queen of 



Trahaern ab Caradoc; whose amour with Fleance, the son of Ban- 
quo, originated the royal race of the Stuarts of Scotland. The 
Lady Nest, or Brecon (daughter of the last-named), wife of 
Bernard de Newmarch ; embracing the strange tradition explana- 
tory of her mysterious conduct in causing her son Mahael (destined 
to the earldom of Hereford), to be bastardized and disinherited. 
The Lady Nest, daughter of Iestyn ab Gwrgant, the last native 
lord of Glamorgan, embracing the entire account of the subjugation 
of Glamorgan by the Norman Knights. Mary Llwyd, the He- 
roine of the War Horse at the battle of Hirwain. The Princess 
Nest, daughter of Prince Rhys ab Tevvdwr, mistress of King Henry 
I., mother of the learned Robert of Gloucester, and grandmother of 
Giraldus Cambrensis. The Dames of Arergwayn, or Women 
of Fishguard, who, dressed in their red whittles, in 1797, were 
mistaken by the French invaders for soldiers, which created the 
panic that caused them to lay down their arms and yield them- 
selves prisoners to the Welsh. Tydvil, the Marthyr (24th 
daughter of Bryehan Brecheiniog, the tragic close of whose life is 
here related in continuation of what has been already given), 
from whom the town of Merthyr Tydvil derives its name. The 
Princess Sina, or Ss&nenna, mother of Prince Llewelyn, the last 
native sovereign of Wales ; one of the most amiable and talented 
of the celebrated women of Wales. The Beauties of Merion- 
ethshire, Or " MORWYNION GLAN MERIONETH" RoWENA, Or AHs 
Ronwen, daughter of Hengist, leader of the first Saxon invaders of 
Britain, whose fatal beauty led to the massacre of the Long Knives, 
and terminated in the conquest of the country by the Saxons. The 
Women of the Vale of Clewyd, including a description of that 
fertile and extensive valley. The Ladies of Llangollen, 
namely, Lady Eleanor Butler and the Honorable Miss Ponsonby ; 
whose fanciful residence became the object of fashionable pil- 
grimages, as herein narrated by Madame Genlis, Sir Walter Scott, 
Mr. Lockhart, the humorous Matthews, the comedian, and others. 
The Princess Morvyth, daughter of the last Silurian Sove- 
reigns. St. Tecla, patroness of the churches of Llandegley. 
St. Ursula and the eleven thousand Virgins. St. Winnifred, 
patroness of the Holy Well in Flintshire. Blanche Parry, lady 
of the Privie Chamber and Mistress of the Robes to Queen Eliza, 
beth, of the Llandevileog family, near Brecon. Grace Parry, 
the eccentric mistress of a ferry-boat in North Wales. Lucy Wal- 
ters, mistress of Charles II. and mother of the Duke of Monmouth 
beheaded by James II. for aspiring to the Crown. Bridget Jones, 



the handsome young widow of Llanelly, celebrated by the poet 
Savage. Lucy Lloyd of Penal, an interesting love narrative of the 
14th century. Lady Winnifred Herbert, Countess of Nithis- 
dale, whose lord being involved in the Pretender's rebellion of 
1715, and condemned to suffer death in company with the rebel 
lords of Derwentwater and Kenmuir. She saved his life by a series 
of ingenious contrivances, aided by faithful Welsh servants, and 
ultimately exchanging clothes with him, he escaped from the 
Tower of London ; and in the succeeding reign of George II. 
obtained his pardon. 

Let this suffice as a list of the principal Memoirs to come; al- 
though there are many others of considerable interest, but, perhaps, 
of minor importance. 

I cannot close this Preface without acknowledging my obligation 

to Lady Hall, of Llanover, b y whose inte rest I obtained admission 

toj^fldibiai^ fl£jj;p JRri|jjdi- ..Mnapnjri , wfi'ence much of the matter 
contained in this Work has been derived. In especial terms I 
have also to express my gratitude to the Rev. William Jenkin 
Rees, rector of Cascob, not only for the personal aid which he 
rendered me in transcribing from the valuable books in his library, 
arid his Manuscript History of Radnorshire, but at an unfortunate 
period of my life, for the hospitality of his house for many weeks 
while so employed, during the inclemency of a severe winter. 

In conclusion I may mention, that as the peculiar dedication 
which I have prefixed to this Work, may excite the curiosity of 
many, who may wonder at my choice of ideal patronesses, while 
among living personages of rank one might have been selected, 
to whom my book might have been more profitably inscribed : I 
reply, that an Explanatory Essay respecting the characters referred 
to, is intended to accompany the second volume, should such an 
extension of the Work be called for by the Public. 

T. J. LLEWELYN PRICHARD. 

Swansea, 

1st Nov., 1854. 



!l 



ACTRESSES OE CELEBRITY BORN 
IN VALES. 



In the high glow of his Cambrian nationality Edward 
Pugh, author of" Cambria Depicta,'' was passionatelyanx- 
ious to have the fact established that Mrs^ jkrijan was born 
in "Wales , as Mrs. Siddojis indisputably was. He says — 
"my journey to this place (the village of Nantglyn, Den- 
bighshire) was to gain, if possible, either an affirmative or a 
negative to a report in circulation in this country, that the 
celebrated Thalia, of our day, was born in a respectable 
ancient house, half-a-mile from the village called Plas yn 
Nantglynn, but I have met with no satisfactory or decisive 
account. But several old people assert positively, that 
Mis p Bk nd (the proper name) was the daughter of a Mr. 
J ordan Bland, one of three brothers, Irishmen, many years 
ago residing here." Since the death of Mr. Pugh it has 
been ir refutably ^ established that she really was the daughter 
of the above-named Mr. Jordan Bland, with the additional 
claim to Welsh birth, that her mother was a Pembrokeshire 
lady, whose maiden name was Philipps , and tne residence 
of her family the town of Haverfordwest ; that they were 
remotely related to the late L ord Milfb rd. and consequently 
to his successor in the estate, the present Sir Richard 
Philipps of P icton Castl e. 

Mrs. Siddons, it is well kown, was born in the town of 
Brecon, at an inn called the Shoulder of Mutton ; and the 
room in which she first saw the light there, is marked with an 
inscription, in which the claim to that honour is announced. 
Thus we have to boast (if comfort can be found in boasting) 
that Wales is the country which gave birt^to two of the 
most perfect and wonderful actresses the worToT'ever pro- 
duced, in their respective spheres of comedy and tragedy. 

An attempt to add a leaf or two to Mrs. Siddons's 
superabundant wreath of laurel, would appear a work of 



12 ACTRESSES OF CELEBRITY. 

supererogation ; yet we fancy our little addenda can he 
weaved into the main circlet of her queenly brow, with no 
ungraceful effect. We remember reading of some enthu- 
siastic admirer of this stately actress, who protested that he 
would as soon think of making love to the Pope as to that 
magnificent creature. Entertaining similar ideas of the gran- 
deur of her bearing, we were not a little surprised to learn 
that in her elegant retreat, in the neighbourhood of London, 
she evinced tastes and habits as g^yej^djdomestic as ever 
graced the mild bosom of the most retiring and home-abiding 
of the daughters of Eve ; and that the stately Sarah, the 
"observed of all observers" on the tragic scene, was passion- 
ately &BiL f flowers. This feature in her character, we 
believe, has noToeen descanted upon by the eminent poet 
Campbell, who has considerably added to his numerous 
literary honours by becoming the biographer of Mrs. Siddons, 
A London florist, and author of a treatise on the growth 
and culture of flowers,* in advocating the Dutch taste for 
a particular mode of planting, says — "in some cases I am 
inclined to copy the Dutchman ; and I would have my bed of 
hyacinths distinct, my tulips distinct, my anemonies distinct, 
my ranunculuses, my pinks, my carnations distinct ; and even 
my beds of double-blue violets, and dwarf larkspur distinct; 
to say nothing of hedgerows of different sorts of roses. Inde- 
pendent of the less trouble you have in cultivating them 
when kept separate, you have, as I have said before, beauty 
in masses; and you have likewise their fragrance and per- 
fume so concentrated, that they are not lost in the air, but 
powerfully inhaled whenever you approach them." 

"Mrs. Siddons, the celebrated tragic actress, is a great 
admirer of this mode of planting, and fond of contemplating 
this " beauty in masses." She adopted this style of garden- 
ing at her late residence on the Harrow-road. One favourite 
flower with her was the viola amcena, the pansy, 7 or common 

* Thomas Hogg. 

f Pansy, from panacea, derived from the Greek, and signifying " heal-all." 
Although "heart's-ease" has become the name by which it is known among 
the people of England, we frequently heard it called " love in vain" (doubtless 
derived from its Shaksperean title of "love in idleness") by the cottagers of 
the west of England. 



ACTRESSES OF CELEBRITY. 13 

purple heart's-ease ; and this set with unsparing profusion 
all round her garden."* 

No devotee at the shrine of Shakspeare can be at a loss 
to discover whence our great actress derived her taste for 
flowers. The source of her inspiration, as the high priestess 
of Melpomone, was also the altar at which she formed her 
flosculous attachment; and well might that he, for what 
poet ever wrote so frequently, so wisely, or so so well, of 
flowers, as the great master who drew forth the homage of 
her heart and soul ? Her special patronage of the pansy, 
that peculiar gem in the treasury of Flora, was doubtless 
suggested by the singular notice of it, which occurs in the 
celebrated passage of " Midsummer's Night's Dream," so 
frequently a point of contention among commentators, for 
the imputed political allusions which it contains. 
Oheron— My gentle Puck, come hither : Thou rememb'rest 

Since once I sat upon a promontory, 

And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, 

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 

That the rude sea grew civil at her song ; 

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres 

To hear the sea-maid's music. 
Puck. — I remember. 
Oberon.— That very time I saw (but thou couldst not), 

Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 

Cupid all arm'd ; a certain aim he took 

At a fair vestal throned by the west, 

And loosd his love- shaft smartly from his bow, 

As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts ; 

But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 

Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon ; 

And the imperial votress passed oh, 

In maiden meditation, fancy free. 

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell : 

It fell upon a little western flower-— 

Before, milk-white ; now purple with Love's wound— 

And maidens call it Love in idleness.^ 

* Notwithstanding their admiration of the great Sarah Siddons, the London 
tradesmen were fond of contrasting the economcial habits of the Kembles 
with the liberality, or rather lavish expenditure, of the eccentric tragedian 
Edmund Kean ; whence the following anecdote by our florist :— " Her greats 
and constant call for this flower, every spring, to keep the purple-bordering 
complete and perfect, induced the gardeners in the neighbourhood to give the 
name of ' Miss Heart's-ease,' to her managing handmaid, who used to chaffer 
for it, in the true spirit of hard and thrifty dealing." , 

f The juice of this flower was to lave the eyelids of^Titania, queen of the 
fairies, while sleeping, to act as a charm, so that she might fall in love with the 
first object she might behold on awakening — and this happened to be the head 
of an ass ; the principal source of the comic humour in " Midsummer's Night's 
Dream." 



14 ACTRESSES OF CELEBRITY. 

But as this passage involves more important matter than 
what relates to this flower, and as some of our readers may 
not have met with Warhurton's interpretation of its mystery, 
the insertion of it here may not be altogether out of place. 
Finding that " the fair vestal throned by the west," could 
be no other than Queen Elizabeth, that discovery suggested 
to him that the poet had in view some other public cha- 
racters of that period ; and one especially whom he aimed 
to eulogise, but dared not do so openly^ whence this singular 
mode of introducing covert. praise, which, if noticed, might 
be explained away ; as it fairly admits of both the obviously 
poetic, as well as the hidden meaning. He decided that 
the "mermaid," was Mary Queen of Scots; and the "dol- 
phin," her husband the French Dauphin : " uttering such 
dulcet and harmonious breath, &c," referred to Mary's 
eloquence and skill in music ; and the " certain stars," to 
the English nobility who involved themselves, and perished 
in her cause. 

Our florist remarks further on Mrs. Siddon's gardening 
peculiarities: "her garden was remarkable in another respect, 
and might with great propriety be styled a garden of ever- 
greens, which, together with a few diciduous shrubs, were of 
the most sombre, sable, and tragical cast ; such as box, fir, 
privet, philligrea, arbor vitae, holly, cypress, the red cedar, 
laurel, Irish ivy, bay -tree, arbutus daphne or spurge laurel, 
cneorum tricoccum, or the 'widow's wail,' the branches 
and flowers of which, according to Pliny, were carried by 
the Roman matrons in their funeral processions. 

' Purpores spargam flores.' 

Virgil. 

The only part of the year in which it could be viewed with 
any degree of satisfaction, was the winter, as giving rise to 
a pleasing association of ideas, in beholding these retain their 
green verdure and clothing, at a time when the rest of the 
surrounding trees were stripped, naked, and bare." 



If 



ALICE, COUNTESS OP CLAR E, 

WIDOW OF RICHARD FITZGILBERT EARL OF CLARE, AND 
SISTER OF RANULPH EARL OF CHESTER. 

In the year 1135, the thirty-third and last of the reign 
of Henry L, and the first of King Stephen, during the 
successful career of the Welsh princes in recovering the 
independence of their country, from the usurpation of the 
Normans, an atrocious event 'took place, which has been 
related at large in the memoir of the princess Gvyenllian. 
This was the beheading of a lady, the princess last named, 
wife of the prince of South Wales, and daughter of the 
prince of North Wales, by a Norman knight named Mau- 
rice de Londres, whose fortune it was to take her prisoner, 
at Kidwelly, in Carmarthenshire, while leading an army 
against him, in the absence of her husband. An act like 
this, *' without precedent even jn these times," rather calls 
in question the vaunted chivalry and " gentle blood" of 
these Norman marauders, so partially cited by Warrington, 
in contradistinction to the imputed ferocity of the Welsh. 

This additional reference to that event is made here pre- 
vious to introducing the following account of a, far lighter 
evij,, said to have befallen a N orma n lady at this very 
period, treated by Warrington, however, as if meriting 
the highest consideration of a national historian, then pro- 
fessedly writing a history of Wales. By a candid exami- 
nation of his narrative, and comments on it, we hold that 
this author stands self-convicted of partialities and antipa- 
thies, intolerable in a historian. The following is his 
account of the perils and rescue of the countess of Clare : — 

" In the course of these events, Richard earl of Clare, to 
whom the territory of Cardigan had been given by Henry, 
was murdered by Iorwerth, the brother of Morgan of Caer- 
lleon, as he was riding through a forest, enjoying the 
pleasure of music, and without suspicion of an enemy. His 
a2 



16 ALICE, COUNTESS OF CLARE. 

widow, the countess of Clare, and sister to the earl of Ches- 
ter, had retired into one of his castles on the murder of her 
husband. In this fortress, during the late campaign, she 
was besieged by the W elsh. The situation of this lady 
was truly deplorable. She was invested by an irritated 
enemy, and in want of provisions ; the English were nearly 
all slain, or expelled the country ; her brother was at a dis- 
tance, and so employed in defending his own territories, 
that he could not afford her any timely relief: and what 
contributed to render her situation still more wretched, 
she had reason to expect every hour, a fate she might deem 
more cruel than death itself; the Welsh, like manv__ other 
nations, having usually taken their female captives, even 
those of the highest rank, to be their concubines.* In this 
dreadful state Milo Fitzwalter, who by right of his wife, the 
daughter of Bernard de Newmarch, was the lord of Breck- 
nock, received orders from King Stephen to use his utmost 
endeavours, to set at liberty the unfortunate countess. 
There was so much difficulty and danger in the enterprize, 
that its success appeared almost impossible. A generous 
pity which a brave mind ever feels for weakness in distress, 
and the gallant spirit of chivalry, made him however at- 
tempt at every hazard, to deliver the lady out of danger. 
He lost no time, therefore, in marching with a chosen body 
of troops, through ways which were least frequented, tra- 
versing along the tops of mountains, and through the deep 
woods of the country, and at length having had the good 
fortune to arrive at the castle, unseen by the Welsh, he car- 
ried away the countess of Clare and all her retinue. An 
action so gallant and humane, equals many of the fanciful 
descriptions which are found in romance, and proves such 
pictures to have borne some resemblance to the manners of 
the feudal ages." 



* The Welsh -were by no means singular, even in this island, for that species 
of barbarity. We read in Saxon annals that Atholbald king of ihe West 
Saxons, combined the revolting crime of incest with the lesser offence of keep- 
ing a concubine, in a manner which proved the injunction that a man may not 
marry his mother or a>andmotha; was not altogether a superfluous command. 
On his accession to the crown he k jpt bis ^fipmntfafxr , the second wife of Ethel- 
wulf his lather (uncle of the greatATfred), in the disreputable character of a 
concubine, and afterwards married her in the city of Chester. 



ALICE, COUNTESS OF CLARE. 17 

Then follows his comment on this marvellous feat. "We 
see not on this occasion the same gallantry of spirit in Owen 
and Cadwalader (Owen Gwyneth and his brother) ; nor in 
other parts of their subsequent conduct; though these prin- 
ces, it is said,* were highly distinguished for humanity and 
courteous manners.'' 

The invidious remark respecting the want of alacrity 
on the part of these princes, to exert their gallantry on this 
occasion, would imply that Mr. Warrington expected them 
to forego for the time, their important national enterprize of 
driving out the enemies of their country, to undertake a 
Quixotic mission for liberating the widow of one of their 
most active of enemies : a man who had been sent by their 
arch enemy the king of England, and forced on their nation, 
to take possession of the estates of the ejected Welsh pro- 
prietors. Besides, at this very period, Owen Gwyneth and 
Cadwalader were furiously engaged in avenging upon the 
Normans the chivalrous act of Maurice de Londres, who, as 
before mentioned, had beheaded their sister Gwenllian. It 
would seem that Mr. Warrington had forgotten the eulogies 
extorted from him by the intrepid conduct of these princes 
on that spirit-stirring occasion ; so that the present implied 
censure is a direct contradiction of himself as the reader 
will find on referring to the close of our memoir of Gwen- 
llian, queen of prince Griffith at Rhys. That the countess 
of Clare herself did not think meanly of these Welsh prin- 
ces, is evident, from the circumstance that she gave her 
daughter in marriage, about a year after her husband's 
death, to the gallant and accomplished Cadwalader. 

With the candour which has always distinguished his 
historical investigations, Theophilus Jones, the Breckonshire 
historian, has given two authorities for this story of the 
rescue of the countess of Clare, either of which was equally 
within the reach of Warrington ; but the latter adopted 
that version only, which was most unfavourable to the 
Welsh, although the other is far more circumstantial, and 

* " It is said," is a favourite phrase -with this historian, when compelled by 
its obviousness to insert any fact, honourable to the Welsh, and the reverse to 
their antagonists; of course implying that it is of doubtful authority, and not 
worthy of implicit belief. 



18 ALICE, COUNTESS OF CLARE. 

therefore more probable, and could not fail to be preferred 
by any unbiassed examiner of the two narratives. We have 
also in this latter account, a very different story of the 
imputed murder of the earl of Clare. 

" An old chronicle,* by an anonymous author has preserved 
an exploit by Milo Fitzvvalter, soon after Stephen's assuming 
the crown, which, if it could be depended upon, would per- 
petuate his courage as well as gallantry, and place him 
almost in the same rank with Amadis de Gaul, Orlando 
Furioso, or any other visionary hero of romance. Lord 
Lyttleton, in his life of Henry II. has erroneously referred 
to Giraldus Cambrensis for this anecdote ; *j" but the story 
of the assistance rendered by Milo to the countess of Clare, 
widow of Richard Fitzgilbert, or Richard de Tonbrugge, 
or Clare, first earl of Hertford, is quoted by Carte, with 
more accuracy from the chronicle mentioned below,! where 
we learn that this Richard was betrayed and murdered by 
the Welsh, at the very time when he proposed joining them 
in an insurrection against the king of England, and that 
his lady who was sister to the earl of Chester, being, soon 
after the death of her husband, besieged in one of his cas- 
tles in Cardiganshire, with scarcely any expectations of 
relief, was almost miraculously saved from death, or a more 
ignominious fate, by the interference and bravery of Milo 
Fitzwalter, who with a handful of men, at the command of 
King Stephen, marched through an enemy's country, over 
the tops of mountains and through impervious wilds, 
brought her and her whole suite into England, leaving the 
besiegers to batter bare walls, and to plunder a deserted 
fortress. " 

The Welsh chronicle gives a very different account of 
the death of the earl of Clare, and the siege of his castle. 
In this year (1138) there was a dispute between King 
Stephen and his nobles, says this history, and the king laid 
siege to Lincoln, where they were assembled. To their 

* Gesta Regis Stephani, vol. 930. 

t Warrington lias repeated the error, without acknowledging his obligation 
to his lordship ; referring as the source of his information, to Giraldus Cam- 
brensis Itin. lib. i., cap iv. 

% Bruty Tywysogion, history of the princes. 



ALICE, COUNTESS OF CLARE. 19 

assistance came Robert Consul (Robert earl of Gloucester) 
to support the cause of his sister Maud, who had married 
the emperor of Germany. With Robert came also Ralph 
earl of Chester, and the men of Rhyvoniog and Tygengyl, 
and Gilbert earl of Clare, with a strong force from Dyved, 
and the Norman and Saxon nobility pressed hard upon the 
king and took him prisoner; and in that battle the valour 
of the Welsh was particularly conspicuous.* In this con- 
flict lor worth ab Owen ab Caradoc led the van, leaving the 
earl of Clare in his rear. This, the earl resented highly, 
and soon afterwards, seeiag Iorworth by the river's side 
fishing, he struck him a violent blow on the ear, at the 
same time calling him a clownish Welshman, and telling 
him he was totally ignorant of the manners of a gentleman, 
or he would not have presumed to take the lead of his su- 
perior. The Briton, though he might want politeness, 
certainly did not want courage, the only answer, therefore, 
he returned to this rude address (as far as now appears), 
was by laying the assailant dead at his feet, with one blow 
of his fist. Upon hearing of this event the Welsh imme- 
diately laid siege to the castle of Uwchtyd, in Cardigan- 
shire, to which place the countess of Clare had retired from 
Carmarthen for safety, and compelled the garrison to fly 
for their lives. 

Thus differently related are the transactions of those 
days by the historians of the two different countries; the 
reader will determine to which he will give credit. My 
opinion is (loath as I am to deprive the lord of Brecknock 
of the honour of this gallant adventure) that the whole 
story, as related by the Gesta Regis Stephani, appears to 
be extremely doubtful, as well as improbable, and not suffi- 
ciently authenticated. Giraldus Cambrensis, though he 
wrote soon after this supposed event, and though he fre- 
quently mentions the name of Milo Fitzwalter, says not a 

* The reverse appears to have heen the case ; Theophihis Jones states, on the 
authority of English history, that the Welsh were so far from dsitinguishing 
themselves in this fight (though their defeat throws little, if any, disgrace upon 
their national character), that being thinly clad and poorly armed, they were 
put to flight on the first outset of the king's troops under William D'Ypres 
whose coats of mail, and "ribs of steel," were impenetrable to the rude 
weapons of the mountaineers. 



20 ALICE, COUNTESS OF CLARE. 

syllable of his having rescued the countess of Clare from 
her enemies ; and the whole of this tale, unsupported as it 
is, except by an anonymous writer, savours too much of the 
marvellous. On the other hand, the name of Gilbert has 
been inaccurately introduced by the British historian, in- 
stead of Richard Fitzgilbert, and the latter part of the 
account in which the lady and the garrison, who fled into 
the castle for safety, are made to fly out of it, for the same 
purpose, into the very heart of an enemy's country, is con- 
fused, if not incredible. 

The same author concludes his observations by showing 
that Milo Fitzwalter, as constable of all England, was 
residing then at Gloucester Castle, whence, if the tale be 
true, he must have been dispatched by King Stephen, " as 
he never afterwards appeared in the character of the king's 
friend or subject," having abandoned his cause and joined 
the party of the empress Maud. 

To recur again to Warrington's high estimate of Milo 
Fitzwalter's romantic feat, even if true, is by no means 
surpassed by the daring and clever achievement of Kenuric 
Heer* (Kenrie the tall), who liberated prince Griffith ab 
Cynan from an imprisonment endured for twelve years in 
Chester Castle, as related in the memoirs of Angharad 
his queen. His motives for the hazardous attempt were 
founded on the highest principles of patriotism, and his 
destruction certain, if he failed in his enterprize. His suc- 
cess involved great consequences of good to his country, 
over-run, devastated, and seized upon, by the Norman ma- 
rauders miscalled knights, in the long absence of its captived 
prince, and his devotion to the perilous act — to succeed or 
die — was equal to any species of heroism on record. Yet 
the best eulogy which Warrington could afford to bestow 
on this young Welshman's achievement, consists of this 
brief, and not very striking sentence, when compared with 
the long and elaborate eulogies on Milo Fitzwalter. 

" It is with pleasure we contemplate an action like this, 
heroic in itself, and directed by a principle of masculine 
virtue.'* 

* In Welsh written Hir. 



II 



ALMEDHA THE MARTYR, 



TWENTY-THIRD DAUGHTER OF ERYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

Almedha, the twenty-third daughter of this prince, has 
several names assigned to her in different MSS. The 
Welsh designations were Elud, Elyned, and Aluned ; the 
latter was latinized by the monks into Almeda, or Almedha. 
" She lived, as we are informed, at a place called Ruthin, 
in GJ^injQr^aiishire, and suffered mj rf;yy4pm u P on ^a""]£iP 
near Brecon, called Pen-ginger.* This hill is now gene- 
rally known by the name of SlvgcJk though part of it still 
retains its old appellation. Pen- ginger is a corruption of 
Pen cefn y Gaer, i. e., the summit of the ridge of the forti- 
fication, from an old British camp, the remains of which are 
still visible. Not far from the camp stood the monastic 
house, which Giraldus Cambrensis calls a stately edifice, 
where Almedha is supposed to have officiated as principal, 
or lady abb ess. It is now completely ruinated, and can only 
be traced oy tradition to a spot where a heap of stones and 
an aged yew tree, with a wall at its root, marks its site.f 
It is about a mile eastward o f i ( Br ec_ q n. on the left-hand side 
of the road, leading from that place to a farm house called 
Slwch. According to Dr. Owen Pughe, another church 
was consecrated to her memory, at Mold in Flintshire. 
She was undoubtedly the li Almedha" of Giraldus Cam- 
brensis, who particularly notices the " Basilica" upon Pen- 
ginger, " This devout virgin," says he, " rejecting the 
proposals of an earthly prince, who sought her in marriage, 
and espousing herself to the eternal king, consummated her 
life by a triumphant martyrdom. The day of her solemnity 

* Cressy's Church History. 

f In a parchment roll, in the Augmentation Office, containing a list of the 
possessions of the religious houses in the time of Henry VIII., this structure ia 
culled the chapel of St. Alice (another name for this many-named lady !) It 
fell down in the latter end of the 17th century. 



-} 



ALMEDHA THE MARTYR. 

is celebrated every year on the first day of August." He 
then proceeds to record the miracles of the saint, and the 
faith and religious frenzy of her votaries ; upon which his 
annotator is a little waggish, and hints that they might now 
and then have taken a cup too much. 

The particulars of Almedha's martyrdom are not upon 
record ; but it is probable, like her sister Tydvil, and her 
brother Cynog, that she met her death at the hands of some 
of the pagan Saxons, who, in their freebooting incursions, 
always visited the early British christians with their utmost 
hatred. Possibly those brutal people marked those religious 
with their especial animosity only in the spirit of robbers, 
conceiving that there was more treasure among them than 
elsewhere, from the liberality of credulous devotees, who 
visited their cells and hermitages.* 

* As Almedha is the first of the Welsh martyrs that comes under notice, we 
shall make a few remarks on Welsh saints generally, as contradistinguished 
from those of the Roman Catholic church. In William Salisbury's letter 
respecting the imputed devastation committed on certain Welsh manuscripts, 
he incidentally strikes an oblique blow at our pretensions to Welsh saints, alleg- 
ing them to have been uncanonized; meaning that they were nominated saints 
only for their piety and devotion to the sacred cause of religion by the suffrage of 
their own clergy and countrymen alone. Thus inferring, that as tbey had not paid 
the sanctification fees, and received the warrantry of saiutsbip from his holiness 
the Pope, they were, therefore, uncanonized saints- The ancient British chris- 
tians, however, held Papistic sanctification at a very low estimate. Previous 
to the intrusion of Augustine the monk, in bis vain attempt at christianizing 
those who were already better christians than himself, it was the custom of the 
pious Britons to make then - pilgrimages to Jerusalem instead of Rome. It was 
also their honest boast that their dignified clergy received their appointments at 
the hands of the highest authorities in the holy city of the apostles, truly sanc- 
tified as it had been, by the p tesence and ministry of the Saviour of the world. 



zS 



ANGLESEA BEAUTIES. 

Lewis Morris, the Welsh poet and antiquary, has immor- 
talized the female beauty, so abundantly prevailing in 
Merionethshire, by his popular song of <4 Morwynion glan 
Merioneth;" but it appears that the famed island of Anglesea 
is no less proverbial for that description of excellence. In 
olden time the little island was renowned for the Egyptian 
plenty of its corn harvests, in seasons when comparative 
famine prevailed in other counties of Wales. But in modern 
times a brief record of its riches may be comprised in the 
following Triban : — 

" In Mona's isle three glories reign, 
Abounding fields of w beaten grain ; 
Rare treasures of the min'ral world, 
And woman's charms by worth impearl'd. " 

The late Edward Pugh, author of that delightful work 
" Cambria Depicta," travelled the island fully imbued with 
the right feeling to enjoy the presence of these fairies as 
they were presented to him ; and the beautifully embellished 
book of his production is the noblest monument that could 
be raised to perpetuate the memory of the gifted artist, poet, 
philanthropist, and antiquary. In the following notice of 
a cottage beauty , it will be perceived that -he was one of 
those intense worshippers at the shrine, who sought and 
found the alliance of the mental with the exterior charms ; 
and he had also the advantage here of rinding a scenic para- 
dise to enshrine his living statue. 

" After an early and excellent breakfast, I pushed on 
across a desert sandy country of two miles, through the 
whole of which I could not discover one object worthy of 
observation, till I gained the hill of Lanverian. My atten- 
tion was now taken up by a scene I had been deprived of 
for several days, but which was highly improved from 
this site. I think this the most beautiful eminence in 
Anglesea. It commands a pro?pect of nearly the whole of 
the island ; the promontory of Holyhead is seen westward ; 
on the north and north-east are the Parys and Bodavon 

B 



24 ANGLESEA BEAUTIES* 

mountains, and the great stretch of sea, from the head to the 
extremity of the great horn of Carnarvonshire, with the 
triad conic mountain called Reilf, with Snowdon and his 
companions terminating beyond Pen-maen-mawr. William 
Jones, who occupies the cottage on this spot, enjoys the best 
summer situation in all Anglesea. I was not a little pleased 
with his good-looking daughter, who seemed to take the 
greatest pleasure in pointing out to me these fine objects ; 
and, though familiarized to all the varieties that surrounded 
her, she spoke of them with a warmth of soul, and strength 
of judgment, that would have done honour to some in much 
more exalted situations." 

Our artist's fascination had nearly cost him dear, and led 
him to an adventure, which, but for the difference of a sandy 
instead of a rocky coast, somewhat resembles the perilous 
scene described in Sir Walter Scott's " Antiquary .'' Hence 
let all " adorers,'' whether poets or painters, beware of 
indulging their propensities by the sea-side during the 
season of an insiduous advancing flood-tide. He says — 

" I now descended this hill with some degree of haste, 
in order to gain Malldraeth sands before the tide could 
prevent my crossing them, but should have effected this 
with much less trouble, had not the artless manner and 
unaffected address of the young woman just mentioned, 
kept me longer on the spot than it was prudent to stay. 
The tide was making rapid advances, and a race with it was 
necessary before I could gain a safe place to pass over.'' 

After minutely describing the architectural and scenic 
charms of Plas-coch (red mansion) and Plas-newydd (new 
mansion), on leaving the latter, he came in contact with 
a delightful object that drew forth his warmest powers of 
description. He says, "on quitting these grounds, at the 
north-east lodge, a woman very neatly apparelled opened the 
gate, the child she held in her arms arrested and engrossed 
my attention for some time. Of all the children that I have 
ever seen in my travels over various parts of Great Britain, 
among the poor, the middle classes, and the rich, my eyes 
have not yet been blessed with one so lovely. Its form was 
so angelic, and its face so divine, that for a moment one 



ANGLESEA BEAUTIES. 25 

might have fancied it had made a transitory visit from the 
realms above, in order to raise admiration in those below." 

". The lovely babe was born with every grace ; 
Such was its form, as painters, when they shew 
Their utmost art, on naked loves bestow." 

Dbtden's Ovid. 

At Tregarnedd (Tumulus farm), " the handsome residence 
of Mr. Grindley," Mr. Pugh found himself on classic ground, 
amidst very interesting historical associations ; for, in a 
mansion of the same name, at a short distance in the rear of 
Mr. Grindley's house, dwelt of yore the celebrated Siri 
Griffith Lloyd, knighted by Edward I. for bearing the 
earliest intelligence of a prince having been born to him in 
Carnarvon Castle. But more renowned for the spirited but->^ 
despair-inspired motto which he assumed on his revolt and^_ 
struggle for recovering the independence of his groaning 
country — "Gnell marw vel dyn, na byw vel ci. r * The 
gentle artist found himself very comfortable here; and, not-x^-" 
withstanding the anti- Cambrian name of his host and family, 
his fair daughter delighted him with truly Cambrian music, 
though not upon the national instrument. He states, "early 
in the morning I was most agreeably awakened by the sounds 
of that feminine instrument the piano-forte, on which Mr. 
Grindley 's amiable daughter was playing the sprightly na- 
tional air of Sir Harry «Ddu, or Black Sir Harry, which she 
touched with so much certainty, feeling, and unassuming 
ornament, that it produced a most rapturous effect upon my 
nerves." 

Whoever is acquainted with the Welsh character, will be 
aware that one of the peculiarities of the people, in every 
part of the principality, is that of forming all sorts of 
conjectures about the strangers who happen to pass in 
their neighbourhood, and even acting on conjectures, in- 
correct as they mostly are, as if they were founded on 
indubitable facts. Whimsical instances of these sort of 
errors are detailed by Pugh. It seems, as a pedestrian 
artist, he travelled with a light knapsack at his shoulders, 
an umbrella in his right hand, and a small portfolio, sus- 

* In English, " better die like a man than live like a dog." 



26 ANGLESEA BEAUTIES. 

penciled to his right shoulder hy a broad piece of tape, came 
under his arm. Such an appearance, according to the 
notions of certain merry maids of Mona, implied that he was 
hawking different articles of female finery, and essentials of 
the seamstress or work-table, and a bevy of the island's 
beauties, full of mirth and mischief, suddenly set upon him. 

" I was all at once greeted by three or four pretty white- 
teethed, rosy-cheeked, black-eyed nymphs, with 'pray, Moses, 
vat be you got to shell; open your bags, Moses, for we want 
some bodkins, sheezars, and oder tings.' A plague upon 
these wicked girls, thought I, they have taken me for a Jew 
pedlar." He relates a somewhat similar anecdote of another 
artist travelling in Wales. " I know an artist who, the 
summer before, in company with a clergyman of Chester, 
was on his way to Carnarvonshire, when he perceived an old 
woman running and shouting after him to stop : he did so, 
and the old dame arriving, nearly out of breath, said, 'for 
God's sake, Mr. Abraham, I am almost blind ; I want a pair 
/ of spectacles.' " 

It may here be remarked that the peculiar character of 
the female beauty of North _lYal.es,. is the bright brown 
complexion called brunette ; the finely chiselled nose and 
mouth; black or hazel eyes; white, small, and even teeth; 
and the most polished silken tresses that ever came under 
the description of glossy, coal-black hair. In mercy to the 
race of man, and as a matter of fair-play to other fair ones, in 
not permitting the brunettes to monopolize too many charms 
to themselves, we are bound to state as a drawback on them, 
that these splendid features are rarely accompanied by a fine 
high forehead, but often the extreme reverse. In the his- 
torical Triads of the ancient Britons, the Cymru* are said 
to have come, originally, from the Summer Country, over the 
Hazy Sea, which appellations are generally descriptive of 
Asia, and the German ocean. It is rather corroborative of 
this that the complexions and cast of countenance of those 
North- Walian families, who seem to be of unmixed^filiic 
blood, appear to be somewhat Asiatic, although, of course, 
much changed by climate. 

* Pronounced Cumree. 



ANGLESEA BEAUTIES. 27 

In two instances Warner mentions with admiration these 
features of the Anglesea females among the humbler classes, 
accompanied with favourable remarks on their exemplary I 
industry and general good conduct. Of the people working 1 
at the mine of the Parys mountain, he says, " they are a 1 
remarkably decent and orderly race of people — the men 
healthy and strong; the women tall and robust with fine 
countenances, sparkling black eyes, and teeth like ivory." 
Of an Anglesea pair, who managed one of the ferry-boats 
between them, he observes — "anxious to reach Barmouth 
this evening, we quitted Pen-morva early in the morning, 
crossing the mouth of the Traeth-mawr and the Traeth-bach, 
in a small leaky skiff, with a heavy gale of wind right against 
us. Across this pass, however, we were safely rowed by the 
man and his wife who keep the ferry; the former a true Celt 
in stature and appearance, the latter exhibiting the remains 
of a beautiful person, with the eye of lustre and the teeth of "} 
ivory almost peculiar to her country. Unfortunately we 
could exchange no communication with this harmonious 
couple, as they scarcely spoke a word of English." 

It is said of the female, in the above account, that " she 
exhibited the remains of a beautiful person." The remark 
brings sadly on our recollection the numerous instances which 
we have witnessed of the prjm>tuxe decay of female beauty. 
A few remarks on the causes of tnHTamentable failure, 
which generally accompanies a still more deplorable loss, 
that of health, with their antidotes, will not be unacceptable 
to our female readers ; at least to those whose good sense 
will enable them to relish rough but honest truths, which 
we disdain sugaring, to suit the palates of those fastidious 
and fanciful fools who are the principal objects of our well- 
meaning censures. To uphold the glories of true woman- 
hood, in contradistinction to that trashy mass of foolery and 
affectation called fne-ladyism, is our grand point of moral to 
the different memoirs in this publication. 

Wealthy females, of the higher and middle-classes, fre- 
quently banish their beauties, very soon after they have 
become matrons, by undue personal indulgences ; especially 
where rank and fortune would seem to make them irrespon- 
sible or their enormities. But honest, equitable Nature, who 
b2 



ANGLESEA BEAUTIES. 

is no class legislatress, laughs to scorn such insolent violators 
of her righteous laws ; and to prove that all are amenable to 
them, brands every offender with the fiery stamp of their 
crime right in the front, and shoots the poison which they 
have imbibed through every vein and artery. 

Although the evil pasdons, spleeny chagrin, heart-nursed 
malignity, and stormy rage, carve deep and unseemly grav- 
ings in the human countenance, which becomes a mirror to 
reflect them, are the greatest destroyers of female beauty ; 
but in the second degree, inordinate indulgence in the 
luxuries of the table carry the annihilating rod with almost 
equal certainty. Fair sluggards, who eschew all exercise or 
exertion — fair gluttons and epicures — and they are no fabu- 
lous birds — soon become what is plainly called/a^ andfubzy 
— and learn to emulate the uncomely rotundity and compass 
of a haystack; while those who imbibe stronger potations 
than the tea-table can supply, should feel no surprise if the 
lily and the rose be ultimately supplanted by those unsightly 
flowers of intemperance called wine-buds, and grog-blossoms. 

When that rough, honest, unmincing surgeon, John 
Abernethy, once gave audience to a lady of high rant, she 
feigned great surprise on consulting a looking-glass, and 
discovering a certain crop of scarlet abominations that had 
recently made their appearance, where more modest flowers 
had once bloomed. " Bless me, Mr. Abernethy ! where 
could these horrid pimples come from ?" was her question ; 
"from the braudy-bottle, madam, from the brandy-bottle," 
was his prompt reply. 

That high crime against the purity of nature's ordinances, 
so frequently perpetrated by ladies of rank, of transferring 
their maternal duties to a hireling, declining the sweetest boon 
and prerogative of the young mother, that of nursing and 
feeding her own offspring, carries home a punishment, a well 
merited punishment, to every offender, however the con- 
temptible cant of fashion, and the inane prate of exclusive 
cotories may aver to the contrary'. The object of this insane 
conduct is, to preserve their fine figures, forsooth ! and save 
their beauties from suffering under the irritation and care 
entailed on the whole human race, and supposed to assail 
them especially during the process of these sacred duties. 



ANGLESEA BEAUTIES. 29 

The cruel selfishness which prompts such a deriliction of 
duty is not only founded in error, but meets its just punish- 
ment in that most severe infliction, the alienation of their 
offsprings affection. Whoever has witnessed the sweet 
serenity, and heartful affection beaming in the countenance 
of the nursing mother, as she folds her thriving baby to her 
bosom — her clear-skinned healthiness and purity of look — 
has beheld one of nature's sweetest objects of heart-touching 
veneration. Look next at her extreme contrast, the opulent 
member of the exclusive classes, the heartless dame who places 
her offspring out to nurse ! This imaginary beauty preserver, 
by such an arrangement, is in fact the active destroyer of 
that very treasure which she elaborately attempts to enshrine 
— at the heavy expense of health, duty, morality, and even 
her religion. The peevishness and chagrin engendered by 
disappointment are the most certain destroyers of female 
charms. 

But the middle and humbler classes have also their 
mutilators of beauty, which, with an antidote to the evil, is 
well described in the following passage : — 

" A woman's beauty depends so much upon expression 
that if that be spoilt, farewell to all her charms ; and which 
nothing tends more to bring about than a countenance 
soured with imaginary cares, instead of being lighted up 
with thankfulness for innumerable blessings. That is what 
makes half the women wither into wrinkles so early in life ; 
whilst nothing renders their beauty so lasting as that placid 
look of pure benevolence which emanates from a heart full of 
thankfulness to God, affection for those nearest and dearest 
to them, and good will towards all mankind. * * * 
A woman may be of great assistance to her husband in 
business, by wearing a cheerful smile continually upon her 
countenance. A man's perplexities and gloominess increase 
a hundredfold when his better-half moves about with a con- 
tinual scowl upon her brow. A pleasant, cheerful wife is a 
rainbow set in the sky, when her husband's mind is tossed 
with storms and tempests; but a dissatisfied and fretful wife, 
in the time of trouble, is like one of those fiends who delight 
to torture lost spirits."* 

* I am sorry not to know the name of the author of this well- written and 
beautifol passage, having extracted it from an aj| bum . 



ANGHARAD, 



DAUGHTER OF GWGAN AB METRIC AB DYVENWAL, AB ARTHEN, 
ABSEISYLLT, KING OF CARDIGAN, AND QUEEN OF RODERIC 
THE GREAT, KING OF ALL WALES AND THE ISLE OF MAN. 

" Angharad,* the fair queen of Roderic the great." 

As there is no positively personal history to be related of 
this priDcess, we should not have felt justified in introducing 
her into this work, were it not that she became a partner, 
by wedlock, in certain momentous events, originating in 
her time, and possibly influenced by her in her maternal 
character. 

On the death of Mervyn Vrych, A.D. 843, his son Roderic 
succeeded to his dignity, as sovereign prince of North Wales, 
Powys, and the Isle of Man. Soon afterwards he espoused 
Angharad, daughter of Meyric ab Dyvenwal , by which mar- 
riage he united all South Wales to his other dominions, and 
became the sole sovereign of the whole, as one principality. 

It appears unaccountable how Roderic acquired the dis- 
tinction of " mawr," or the great, as none of his deeds are 
of such pre-eminent import as to entitle him to such a 
superlative mark of national approbation. Casting a retro- 
spective glance through the long and dark vista of ages, 
into the modes and measures of his remote reign, we find 
them abounding with such glaring error, and fatal impolicy^ 
that he could in no manner merit the distinctive appellation 
bestowed on him by his flattering subjects — unless, indeed, 
in a sense too ridiculous for the dignity of history, as, 
among the rulers of the nations, he may be classed with 
the greatest of great blunderers. 

After treating of the fine position in which fortune had 
placed him, as Brenhin Cymru oil, or sovereign of all Wales, 
Warrington remarks — "the firmness resulting from this 
u nio n, the nature of the country, and valour of the inhabi- 
tants, their inveteracy against the Saxons, and the perilous 
situation of that people, were important advantages which 
opened with the reign of Roderic. If this fortunate com- 
bination of circumstances had been directed agreeably to a 

r * The English of Angharad, is Harriet, said to be derived from Harrietts 
1 or little Harry. 



ANGHARAD 31 

wise policy, it would probably have secured the^independency 
ofJWales, and have fixed its government upon a Dasis"so 
solid and permanent, that it might have sustained the~> 
storms of ages, and have fallen at length amid the ruins of ^ 
time, unless undermined by the refinements and luxury of a «*> 
bordering and more civilized and powerful people. «->*»^J l 

Instead of taking advantage of this fortunate conjuncture, 
a crisis which will nevermore return in the annalsjrf Wales, 
a Jaial and irreparable mej&ure took place. For Eoderic. 
early in his reign, divided his dominions into three princi^ 
polities (North Wales, South Wales, and Powys), which,-** 
during his life, were governed by chieftains acting under 
his authority ; and this singular event seems to have arisen 
from the narrow idea, that the Welsh, accustomed to be 
ruled by their native princes, ought not to yield obedience 
to a common sovereign." 

It will be noticed, that on the death of Roderic, his three 
sons were placed to supersede the governors originally 
appointed by their father, and each became the future 
sovereign of his respective principality. It is possible that 
Angharad, the subject of our memoir, was not altogether 
blameless in this preposterous arrangement; considering 
how much female influence can bias, and generally carry its 
point, when the object is to favour their offspring ; and, we 
conceive, that nothing short of maternal partiality and 
woman's weakness, would induce Roderic to make a per- 
manent division of his dominions between his sons. 

In the third year of his reign, AD, 846, Roderic ac- 
quired some celebrity by the spirited repulse which he gave 
Berthred the king of Mercia, supported by Ethulwulph 
king of England, who had invaded his dominions ; but 
neglecting to take measures against the recurrence of similar 
invasions, his memory has justly been subjected to the 
following rebuke from the page of history : — " If Rodericj 
had possessed the qualities of a truly great prince, he wouk 
at least, at this fortunate period have attempted to provide 
against future evils ; and the nature of the country, inter- 
sected by rivers, and fortified by mountains, and almost (t 
surrounded by the ocean, might have pointed out the I 
rational means of defence. Had this prince made a proper / 



32 ANGHARAD. 

f 

use of the leisure which the troubkso^.Englarid had given 
him, he would have placed garrisons in the frontier towns, 
would have collected magazines, and fortified the passes, 
and would have exerted his utmost ability to secure his 
country from foreign invaders, by forming a naval power. 
He would also have endeavoured to reduce his subjects to a 
just subordination, by promoting among them a spirit of 
union, and a steady obedience to the laws. Instead of these 
regulations, that period seems to have been distinguished by 
a total neglect of every measure, which if steadily pursued, 
might have given security to his kingdom."* 

In 872, twenty- nine years after Roderic's accession to 
sovereignty, Alfred ascended the throne of England. After 
ages have unanimously acknowledged the great capacity and 
genius for government which distinguished this prince, and 
with the evidence of his undying claims to their suffrages 
before them, have readily ratified the title of " great," so de- 
servedly bestowed on him by his grateful contemporaries and 
subjects. Were Roderic Alfred's junior, instead of being 
considerably his senior,his assumption of a similar distinction 
might be open to suspicion, that his countrymen had awarded 
it, in imitation of that so justly bestowed npon his English 
contemporary without troubling themselves in discriminating 
the difference between their respective claims. Thus giving 
an instance of affection overbearing wisdom, and of loyalty 
surpassing the calm dictates of justice; a national rivalry 
between the subjects of two sovereigns, in evincing their 
devotion to the memory of their deceased kings. But as 
the fact is contrary, and Alfred young enough to have been 
Roderick's junior son, no such inference can be made; and 
the mist of incertitude must still envelop what no rational 
conjecture can effectually dissipate. 

Strangely enough, the Saxon Alfred did more, in some 
respects, for the glorification of Cambrian fame, than ever 
was performed by their own vaunted " Rodri mawr," whose 
memory is associated with the source of all their direst 

* Warrington. 

Among the minor blunders of Eoderic he changed the royal residence from 
Caer Segont, near the present town of Qarnaryon. to Aberfran in the island of 
Anglesea. Warrington remarks, " it is strange that he should desert a country 
where every mountain was a natural fortress ; and in time's of such difficulty 
and danger should make choice of a residence so exposed and defenceless." 



(\ 



ANGHARAD. 33 

t 

afflictions and national calamities for ages after his decease. 
Our history records of the former — " engaged through his 
reign in affairs of war or legislation, or in introducing 
into his kingdom learning and the arts, this prince filled 
every department in the state, and those appertaining to 
science, with men of the greatest abilities. Having founded 
the university of Oxford, he invited out of Wales two 
persons distinguished for their learning, John De Erigena, 
surnamed Scotus, and Asser, surnamed Menevensis, who 
had been educated at the college of St. David, the former of 
whom he appointed a professor to the university he had 
lately established. And taught by experience the impolicy 
of contending with the Danes by land, and the necessity of 
establishing such a navy as might enable them to oppose 
them at sea, he engaged in his service many Welshmen 
acquainted with the art of ship-building, whom he appointed 
superintendants of the dockyards, and afterwards employed 
in honourable stations in the fleet." 

In the year 877 Angharad became a widow, Roderic 
having fought with his usual gallantry of spirit against the 
English, who invaded the island of Anglesea, at length fell 
in defence of his country, being, with his brother Gwyriad, 
slain in battle. This engagement was called by the Welsh 
Gwaith- dydd sul y Mon; the Sunday's work of Mona, from 
the battle having been fought on the sabbath. 

At this period Angharad was the widowed mother of eight 
children, three of whom, Anarawd, Cadell, and Mervyn, 
were respectively appointed by the will of their father to b«r^ 
the sovereigns of North Wales, Powys, and South Walesr—v 
*' These princes were called y Tri Twysoc Talaethioc, or the,. ■ f 
three crowned princes, by reason that each of them wore A 
upon his helmet a cornet of gol3, being a broad headband, ■^n 
indented upwards, and wrought with precious stones, which— -r 
in Welsh is called Talaeth."* The names of the other 
children were Roderic, Meyric, Edwal, Gwyriad, and Ga- 
thelic. It is probable these children, for their protection, 
were divided among the three sovereign brothers, who 
might employ them in honourable posts under their respective 
governments. 

* Wynn's History of Wales. 



34 ANGHARAD. 

• 

The date or particulars of Angharad's death are not upon 
record. As Cadeli, although the second son of Roderic and 
Angharad, had South Wales, the best portion of the father's 
dominions assigned him, it is probable that he was his 
mother's favourite, and that she spent the rest of her life 
under his protection A writer of the age of James I., finds 
a different motive for this peculiar assignment of South 
Wales to Cadeli, in preference to his elder brother Anarawd. 

" It may perhaps be marvelled at why Rodericke the great, 
in the division above-mentioned, gave to his younger sonne 
the greatest and most fruitfull part of this whole country. 
To which we can answer that South Wales indeed, was the 
greater and richer, but yet accompted the worser part, because 
the nobles there refused to obey their prince ; and allsoe for 
that the sea-coasts were grievously infested with Flemings, 
English, and Normans, inasmuch that the prince was enforced 
to remove his seat of sovereignty from Camarthen to Denevor 
Castle."* 

The fatal measure of Roderic in dividing his dominions 
between his three sons, caused his example to become a 
precedent, not only for them, but their posterity to alL 
future time, to subdivide their possessions, according to the 
number of their children, grandchildren, &c, till from 
princes they dwindled into lords and lordlings, and in a few 
generations to small land-proprietors or farmers. This was 
called the law of ^ vel-lnnd, and had Wales been a republic, 
such a custom would have w r rought gloriously for the benefit 
of the state, by reducing those mischievous bloodshedding 
would-be potentates, into the more innocent and useful cha- 
racters of tillers of the soil. But to the disastrous workings 
of that evil system in monarchy — or numberless monarchies 
— at variance with each other, and to the occasional dis- 
regard of the law of primogeniture, which led to usurpations 
and filled the land with pretenders to sovereignty, Britain - 
first, and ultimately Wales, owed their subjection and ruin. 
But the discussion of these matters is the peculiar province 
of our national history, to which, for further and better illus- 
tration, we now refer our readers. 



(y^w^u ^ 



* In Welsh Dinas-vawr, signifying the great fortress. 



ANGHARAD, 



SOLE DAUGHTER AND HEIRESS OF MEREDITH AB OWEN, KING 
OF SOUTH WALES AND POWTS, AND QUEEN OF LLEWELYN 
AB SEISYLLT, KING OF ALL WALES. 

By the right proceeding from his marriage with this prin- 
cess, Llewelyn ab Seisyllt succeeded his father in law, 
Meredith ab Owen, at his death, in the year 998, in the 
sovereignty of South Wales and Powys. In the year 1015 
having defeated iEthan ab Blegored the usurper of the crown 
of North Wales, and slain him a,nd his four sons in battle, 
he united, once more, the three principalities, and became 
the sovereign of all Wales. 

" This prince, maternally decended from the royal blood of 
Wales, had some colourable pretence for his ambition, his 
mother Trawst being the daughter of Elis, the second son 
of Anarawd, who was the eldest son of Roderic the great." * 
Although Llewelyn was a brave and most successful 
warrior, yet y by wisely coinciding in the salutary and 
amiable suggestions of his wife the princess Angharad, who 
intensely and most actively studied and forwarded the hap- 
piness of their subjects in numerous instances of reform, he 
acquired his brightest laurels by his prolongation of the 
days of peace — ever eschewing war, till the necessity for 
crushing rebellion compelled him to have recourse to vigour- 
ous and decisive measures. 

Although the interference of females in politics and public 
business has been frequently censured, as productive of 
much mischief to a state ; yet, it is not always that that the 
world has been just enough to yield to woman her due share 
of fame where her influence has been every thing in in- 
creasing national glory, by forwarding the good of mankind 
step-by-step from the lowest of the domestic altar. The 
evil of female as well as male sway, is traceable only to the 

* Warrington. 
C 



36 ANGHARAD. 

weakness or wickedness of the party ; sex, certainly hag 
nothing to do with the question ; as the numerous cases of 
national suffering and national felicity proceeding from 
imbecility in man, and wonderful capacity for government 
discoverable at times in women — and the contrary — suffi- 
ciently proves. The present is one of those rare and happy 
instances, wherein the influence of a bright-minded, good- 
hearted, highly-gifted woman, casts the radiance of her 
beatified sunny soul, to vivify the dormant deeds of human 
happiness, in the neglected soil of social government. In 
all the pacific glories of the most happy reign of this well 
matched pair, we can clearly discern — both in the written 
and unwritten details — 'the woman's tastes, and woman's 
feelings which suggested the points that led to such felicitous 
results. 

"The wise administration of Llewelyn soon produced 
national prosperity. To express the happiness of this reign, 
contrasted with preceding times, we, are told, " that the 
earth brought forth double ; that the people prospered in all 
their affairs, and multiplied wonderfully ; and that the cattle 
increased in such numbers that there was not a po/)r man in 
all Wales, from the southern to the northern sea /but every 
man had plenty, every house a dwell&c^ an^ every town 
inhabitants."* 

Again we aver — that such a state of national happiness 
was never produced without the coinciding assistance of 
woman, and that, although the dull monkish chroniclers have 
passed over her share in the production of those blissful 
doings, it is certain that Angharad was as active a labourer 
in the vineyard as him who has engrossed all the credit. 
That, notwithstanding the silence of record, she was fully 
appreciated by her royal husband, as his right hand ; as 
ready to promulgate new ideas, as to second his efforts, for 
the far-spreading of the general happiness. What would 
have availed the gentle tastes and humane ministries of such 
a woman, mystically chosen by a superior power, as a mis- 
sioner of mercy, to implant the embellished arts of peace in 
the affections of a rugged race brutalized by warfare, if that 

* Welsh Chronicles, page 84. 



ANGHARAD. 37 

same power had not given her a mate of congenial mind ? 
Or, of what service, on the other side, would have been the 
humanizing efforts of a generous prince, if crossed in his 
aims by the paltry selfishness of a vain, proud woman, full of 
those mean fancies so characteristic of fine-ladyism, as 
opposed to the nobleness of true womanhood ? Such a 
being, like Elinour, the wife of Edward I.,* would prefer her 
own personal bedeckment, and grandeur from the spoils of 
war, to nurturing the innocence of life and sowing know- 
ledge and virtue in the meek soil of the lowly heart. It is 
clear, although we have no transcript from parchment 
vouchers to the fact, that Llewelyn ab Seisyllt f and his 
princess Angharad worked together, and, likewise as 
gentle co-mates, drew the same way, and together attained 
the same goal, in fertilizing the sterility both of the earth 
and of the human mind. 

In an age so barbarous, when to the restless and the 
turbulent, a season of general pacification seemed an un- 
worthy innovation in their rapacious and bloodshedding 
existence, it is pleasant to contemplate the happiness dif- 
fused among the heart-softened sufferers from the woes of 
war. We can conceive the gentle Angharad visiting and 
visited by the wives and daughters of the nobles of the day, 
conferring and expatiating with them on that state of society, 
especially dear to woman, but which in those days was as 
difficult of attainment as to realize the fantastic fictions of 
the nursery about the marvels of fairyland — a general peace 
with the world — the novel feeling of fearlessness and the 
soul- soothing comforts of the homely hearth. Her culti- 
vated mind and benevolent feelings would suggest to those 
who would similarly enlighten others, the happiness derivable 
from agricultural and other pacific pursuits ; where the 
sower would also be the reaper and consumer — or if he was 
of the numerous tribe of the L&cklands, and sold his 

* See the memoir of the princess Sina in this work. 

t We may here suggest that our mere/English readers who should boggle at 
the pronunciation of this name, Seisyllt/ may icall it Cecil. The great minister 
of Queen Elizabeth of that name, claimed descent from the line of this excellent 
prince, and his family adopted that Anglofied Jnode of writing and pronouncing 
their names. N^ r J 



38 ANGHARAD. 

exertions, his payment in coin or kind was certain. That 
such conferences did take place in reality, is most certain, 
for the result, however ungarnished by details, is upon 
record, in that sunny page which informs us of the glories 
of Llewelyn ab Seisyllt's reign. "The earth brought forth 
double — the people prospered in all their affairs, and mul- 
tiplied wonderfully • — there was not a poor man in all Wales, 
from the southern to the northern sea ; — every man had plenty, 
every house a dweller — and every town inhabitants''' Alas, 
that days so truly glorious, should be so limited in duration ! 
For seventeen years after their accession to sovereignty, 
the civilizing efforts of this amiable prince and princess 
were limited to their dominions of South Wales and 
Powys. But in the year 1015, as before related, Llewelyn 
ab Seisyllt defeated and slew in battle an ambitious ad- 
venturer, who had usurped the throne of North Wales, 
named iEthan ab Blegored, with his four sons ; he then 
added that principality to his former possessions, and 
thus became sovereign of all Wales. This circumstance, 
which would appear to have been the most auspicious 
of his life, and the most fortunate for the welfare of the 
country, ultimately proved the most fatal. On the conquest 
of North Wales, Llewelyn and his princess determined^ to 
make it their principal residence, as it was always considered 
superior or first in the order of precedence of the three 
principalities. With this view they commenced the erection 
of the castle of Rhyddlan, and spent many of their pacific and 
happy days in superintending its erection ; and at the same 
time they both pursued the natural bent of their genius in 
favouring the arts of peace in their new dominions as they 
had formerly done in the old. This dwelling becoming a 
favourite residence, they consumed more of their days in it 
than accorded with their usual wisdom and policy, the 
satisfaction of their earlier subjects, or the usage of the 
Cambrian princes. This was an especial error, indeed a 
fatal innovation in a country like Wales, where the people 
of every district were accustomed at stated periods to see 
the person of their sovereign. Perhaps such residence and 
progresses through the land were indispensible to the safety 



ANGHARAD. 39 

of the sovereign, as they served to keep alive the flame of 
loyalty among such fluctuating and variable dispositions as 
he had to deal with, where credulity in believing the insi- 
nuations and professions of a traitorous aspiring demagogue 
was one of the unfortunate characteristics of this people, and 
the frequent source of their national calamities. In general 
the prince had a Llys or palace in every Cantrev, or hundred, 
where he could command the services of certain tenants, to 
act, for the time of their stay, as domestic servants. It migh t 
be conceived, perhaps, that the burdensome expense of quar- 
tering their prince upon the people, in the different districts, 
would be grudgingly assented to, and render the custom 
"more honoured in the breach than the observance," and 
the omission of their visits more desirable than their pay- 
ment. But such churlish feelings and harsh mode of think- 
ing were very foreign to the Welsh, who generally might be 
said to idolize their prince, and literally rejoiced in his 
presence ; while, on the contrary, they resented and punished 
his absence, by their disobedience and rebellion, as the 
discontent and insurrections we are about to record aptly 
illustrate. 

Endeared, as we may conceive such sovereigns as Llewelyn 
and Angharad to have been, to the better disposed portion 
of the people, an absence of four years from their earlier 
subjects seems to have alienated their affections, and 
smouldering discontent for their apparent preference to the 
northern principality, at length burst into a flame of indig- 
nation among the southerns, and completely annihilated 
every feeling of deference and loyalty. 

" The first appearance of disaffection broke out (A.D. 
1019) in the rebellion of Meyric, a chieftain of eminence, 
but was easily checked by Llewelyn, who slew the traitor 
with his own hand, and defeated his forces. So alienated 
from their loyalty were the people of South Wales, that they 
engaged a Scotsman of mean birth to be the instrument of 
their design, imposing him upon the world as the son of their 
late prince Meredith,* and by the name of Rheenf the dis- 
affected chieftains proclaimed this impostor their sovereign." 

* In Welsh written Meredydd. t In Welsh written Khan. 
c2 



40 ANGHARAD, 

"Llewelyn ab Seisyllt having intelligence of the rebellion, 
collected his forces, and marched into South Wales to give 
an early check to the evil at its source, and having advanced 
to Abergwilley, * near the town of Carmarthen, he found the 
whole power of the country waiting his approach, under the 
command of the newly created prince. At the moment 
when the two armies were going to engage, Rheen encour- 
aged his t soldiers by a confident assurance of victory, after 
which he privately withdrew out of the battle. Llewelyn 
boldly confronting the danger, and placing himself at the 
head of his troops, led them on to the charge, calling aloud 
upon the impostor, whose cowardice so little justified the 
character he had assumed. This battle was bloody, and on 
each side disputed with great spirit ; for, strange as it may 
appear, the rebels fought with determined bravery for a 
despicable coward, though an idol of their own raising, while 
the royalists were scarcely animated in the cause of their 
sovereign, a native of their own country, and of such incom- 
parable merit. At length the troops of Llewelyn, fired with 
the extraordinary valour of their prince, and ashamed to be 
defeated by men over whom they had been often victorious, 
made a vigorous effort, which put the enemy to flight, and 
the impostor, notwithstanding the stratagem he had made 
use of to save his life, was overtaken and slain in the pursuit/'f 

Having thus fortunately put an end to the rebellion, 
Llewelyn ab Seisyllt once more returned a conqueror to his 
anxious and affectionate princess. But their happiness was 
not destined to be of long continuance. The next jear 
Angharad had to lament the violent and bloody death of this 
heroic and excellent prince, by the vile hands of assassins. 
Warrington thus relates the melancholy catastrophe : — 

" The small remainder of his days this prince passed in tran- 
quility ; but his great and virtuous qualities could not exempt 
him from the destiny which usually attended the princes of 
Wales. For Howel and Meredith, the sons of Edwyn,| 



* In Welsh written Abergwili, each of the names being pronounced as spelt 
in the text. 

t Warrington and the Welsh Chronicles. 

} Ab Eineon, ab Owen, at Howel Dda . 



ANGHARAD. 41 

whose family for some years had been set aside in the suc- 
cession to the throne of South Wales, engaged in a con- 
spiracy against him, and either by their emissaries, or with 
their own hands, assassinated this brave and amiable prince," 
in the year 1021. He left one son, Griffith, who in after 
time succeeded to his father's throne. 

Some years after the death of Llewelyn ab Seisyllt* 
Angharad contracted marriage again, with a chieftain named 
Cunvvn Heerdreve;* by whom she had several children. 
The different claims preferred by those pretenders, in after 
times, by their violent attempts to seize the sceptre of 
sovereignty, caused great confusion and civil commotions in 
the land. Thus her latter union became as disastrous as the 
former had been brilliant and auspicious, in a country where 
she had effected so much towards bettering the condition of 
the people, and disseminating universal happiness.! The 
period or particulars of her death are unknown; but the 
share she took in the government of one of the best of the 
Welsh princes, has greatly endeared her memory to after 
ages. 

* In Welsh written Cymin HirdreT. 

fin the days of Welsh independence, it was a frequent manoeuvre of an 
aspirant to sovereignty to contract marriage with the widow or near relative of 
a deceased legitimate prince ; which union seems to have been respected bj- the 
people, and gave the usurper some colour of pretension for his assumption of 
the royal dignity. But, as in this case of Angharad's second union, it led to 
dire evil consequences in aftertime. Kegular hereditary descent being thus 
interrupted ; it gave birth to that most monstrous of national calamities, a 
disputed succession. 



ANGHARAD, 

QUEEN OF THE FUGITIVE PRINCE HOWEL AB EDWYN, RIGHT- 
FUL SOVEREIGN OF SOUTH WALES. 

This princess owes her celebrity to her beauty and her 
misfortunes ; — often the cause and effect of the falls and 
follies of woman, but not so in the present instance. 
Angharad was as virtuous as she was beautiful, and her 
misfortunes entirely unmerited, but traceable only to the 
exceeding folly, presumption, and we may add criminality of 
her husband. 

Angharad became the wife of the fugitive prince Howel 
ab Edwyn ab Eineon ab Howel Dda, or Howel the Good, 
the celebrated Welsh legislator. But great parts are not 
always hereditary : the husband of Angharad, though brave 
to excess, possessed no portion of the wisdom of his ancestor ; 
his bravery was nullified by his rashness ; his claim to a 
crown, set aside by the popular dread of his indiscretion, and 
his entire life evinced a headlong, impatient, ill-considered 
course of conduct, that led to numerous discomfitures, and 
ultimately produced his own untimely death, and the long- 
sorrowing captivity and ruin of his blameless wife. 

Splendid as was the reputation of Howel's grandfather, 
the famed Howel the Good, his fame availed little to aid the 
cause of his hot-headed descendant; Howel ab Edwyn had 
for his opponent a prince equally wise, brave, and popular 
as his progenitor; the gallant capable Llewelyn ab Seisyllt. 
During the un solvable intricacy of an agitated question of 
right, entangled by a train of usurpations and irregular 
successions, this prince, as before related, was, in the year 
1015, by the suffrage of the people, the best and truest 
of titles, combined with his victories over other pretenders, 
raised to the sovereignty of all Wales. As the merits of 
Llewelyn ab Seisyllt have been discussed in the preceding 
article, the memoirs of his wife Angharad, a repetition is 
unnecessary. To recover his long-opposed right to the 



ANGHARAD. 43 

throne of South Wales, Howel ab Edwyn, assisted by his 
brother Meredith, engaged in various plots and stratagems 
to dispossess Llewelyn ab Seisyllt of that portion of his 
dominions : failing to dethrone him by the force of arms, these 
dishonourable brothers, restless and tenacious in their aims 
through all failures, at length descended to the baseness of 
entertaining a plan of assassination. In the year 1021, just 
as that wise and gallant prince had returned home to North 
Wales, triumphant over certain rebels, these unscrupulous 
and dark-minded sons of Edwyn, either by their own hands or 
the agenc} 7 of others, murdered him. Their villany, however, 
proved utterly unavailing in forwarding their ambitious 
views. The odium naturally excited by the assassination 
of a prince, so greatly and very generally beloved as 
Llewelyn ab Seisyllt, precluded the murderers from attain- 
ing the ends they sought. Ah hough Howell and Meredith, 
favoured by the lawlessness of the times, for the present 
escaped the punishment due to their crimes, they had the 
mortification to see the throne they had made vacant occu- 
pied by another pretender, who defeated their forces and 
kept his seat. So absolutely crushed were their powers at 
this time, the year 1021, that for ten years they remained in 
a state of exile and retirement. During this period we 
entirely lose sight of the unhappy lady of this memoir» 
without a trace of either her place of refuge or mode of 
existence. But we may conceive that her state was wretched 
indeed, without a home, or even a prospect; of the settlement 
of her affairs, so as to rest once more beneath the safety of a 
secure roof. Although the mate of an aspirant to a throne, 
she must have found her condition, in those murderous 
times, far less felicitous than the humblest cottage wife, 
whose lowly lot became her security from molestation. 

In the year 1031 Howell and Meredith once more brought 
an army into the field, principally composed of Irish and 
Scotch mercenaries, with the view of driving Rhytherch ab 
Iestyn from the throne of South Wales. Fortune at length 
seemed to smile on their efforts, for they conquered his 
forces and slew the usurper. Scarcely had they attained 
the object of a life of contention and vicissitudes, when the 



44 ANGHARAD. 

sons of Rhytherch came in great force and gave them battle, 
but the latter were soon defeated, and their armj entirely 
routed. 

" These victories might have secured to Howel and Me- 
redith the quiet possession of their dominions, if the spirit of 
revenge, kept alive ia that age by every incitement which 
influence the passions, had Rot retaliated on these princes 
the murder of Llewelyn ab Seisyllt— for the nephews of that 
prince engaged in a conspiracy against them, assassinated 
Meredith, and forced Howell into exile. Thus the unhappy 
Angharad, with her fierce and wretched husband, was again 
driven forth, to endure the sad and sudden transition from 
sovereignty to wandering beggary — from the security of a 
castle palace to the dreary shelter of caves and forests, iu 
perpetual peril of the knife or arrow of the assassin — and all 
this after the brief possession of a crown for a single year. 
But long gloom and brief sunshine were the unhappy for- 
tunes destined for this suffering princess. Having shared 
the miserable lot of her sullen and restless mate for some 
years, he once more succeeded to recover his lost dominions. 
Happy as the winged bearer of the olive branch from the 
wrecks of a lost world, Angharad felt truly grateful for what 
appeared to her the acme of human felicity — the blessings of 
a recovered home — a secure place of sojourn — food and fire, 
and the couch for slumber — equal enjoyments to the high 
and lowly, when contrasted with a recent heartfelt pining 
for all these necessaries of nature. Praying for a conti- 
nuance of these, in a hallowed season of peace and security, 
Angharad made no reference, in an appeal to her maker, to 
the durability of the pride and pomp of sovereign dominion. 
But limited as were her desires, her meek and sinless wishes 
— they were not to be fulfilled ; for the demon war was once 
more lighting his torch, and baring his brand to drive her and 
hers again into the wilderness — and, even that, becoming a 
blessed refuge from the horrors of sword and fire. Four 
years was the utmost limit of their newly acquired felicity, 
when all these sufferings and sorrows came to pass." 

In the 1037, Griffith ab Llewelyn having grown to man- 
hood, and favoured by the popular memory of his father, 



ANGHARAD, 45 

added to his own prowess in arms, took the field against 
lago ab Edwal, then the occupant of the throne of North 
Wales. Having defeated his forces, and slain that prince, 
Griffith was well received by the people of that country as 
their sovereign. Immediately after this, he was called upon 
to repel a confederate army of English and Danes, who had 
entered Wales. Meeting them at Crossford, on the hanks 
of the Severn, he entirely defeated their forces. Elated 
with success, he proceeded thence into South Wales, then 
under the dominion of Howell ab Edwyn the murderer of 
his father. Fortune again smiling on his banners, he soon 
drove Howel from his possessions ; when he, and the heroine 
of this memoir, again became wanderers on the face of the 
earth. Howel, however, who wanted neither courage nor 
tenacity of character to endeavour to recover his losses, 
repaired to Edwyn, the brother of Leofric, earl of Chester, 
and raised by his means, an army of English and Danes, 
with which he marched into Wales against Griffith ab 
Llewelyn. Fortune, however, continuing propitious, that 
prince overthrew the foreigners, slew, Edwyn, and again 
forced Howel to a speedy flight, on which he returned to 
Rhuddlan castle, the seat of his sovereignty in North Wales. 

Twelve months having elapsed since his last discomfiture, 
that time had been fully employed by Howel in reinforcing 
and greatly enlarging his army for another strenuous at- 
tempt fur the recovery of his dominions. Accordingly, in 
the year 1038, in the glowing pride of his heart, he led forth 
his enlarged powers, full of the most flattering hopes of 
success. So very sanguine was he now of winning a deci- 
sive battle, that he brought with him towards the field of 
contention, his beautiful though long suffering wife Angharad, 
the partner of his wild wanderings through every change of 
fortune, to share in the glories of his anticipated victory; — 
glories, alas! which neither was ever destined to enjoy. 

11 Griffith ab Llewelyn receiving intelligence of this event, 
marched with his usual celerity into South Wales, and 
meeting Howell at Penca lair, in Carmarthenshire, he there 
gave him battle, and entirely defeated his army. The 
unhappy Howel escaped with difficulty ; but to render his 



46 ANGHARAD. 

fate more deplorable, his wife, the unhappy Angharad, was 
taken prisoner, and fell into the hands of his rival in power, 
the man whose father he had himself murdered. The 
beauty of Angharad captivated the heart of her conqueror, 
and Griffith, with all his merits, had no pretensions to the 
character of a Scipio. " Instead of protecting her honour, 
or yielding up this princess to her husband, she was detained 
by Griffith as his concubine." " In times less savage than 
these, such an action, measured by civilized ideas of heroism, 
incapable of offering violence to weakness, or of insulting the 
feelings of a vanquished enemy, would have been received 
with general abhorrence. But it does not appear that 
Griffith lost any reputation with his subjects — the Welsh 
regarding whatever they had taken in war, even the wives 
of the vanquished, as the lawful property of the conqueror." 
The above passage is the remark of Lord Littleton on this 
event. Setting aside the preposterous absurdity of " measur- 
ing an action,'' perpetrated in times comparatively savage by- 
civilized ideas of heroism, greatly as the conduct of Griffith 
is to be reprobated, his lordship might have remembered 
that the Welsh are by no means singular in such instances 
of barbarity, as parallel cases of equal atrocity may be cited 
done by English heroes, " of the gentle Norman blood," as 
Sir Walter Scott delights to designate it, in contradistinc- 
tion to the Saxon and Celt. The pitiable helplessness of 
the young princess Nest, daughter of the sovereign prince 
Rhys ab Tewdwr, on the death of her father in battle, the 
flight of her brothers for their lives, from those who were 
thirsting for their blood, the utter destruction of her pa- 
ternal home, and her consequent orphancy and destitution, 
proved no arguments of protection against the lustful bar- 
barity of the Anglo-Norman king, Henry I., who made the 
descendant of a long line of princes his concubine. And 
this took place more than a century later than the instance 
here cited ; and, among others, we might enlarge on a still 
more modern piece of barbaric atrocity, perpetrated by the 
infamous King John, in the hanging of the boy-hostages, the 
sons and representatives of both royal and noble families of 
Wales, entrusted to his custody and care by their confiding 
parents. 






ANGHARAD. 47 

In the year 1040, we find Hpwel again in the field at the 
head of an army; — " stung with the keen resentment which 
such injuries would naturally excite, Howel came the third 
time into South Wales, in hopes of revenging the late insult 
upon his honour, and, by another brave effort, to recover his 
wife and his crown. He had not been there long before a large 
body of foreigners landed in the country, who, spreading 
themselves abroad, committed great depredations. Howel, 
though desirous of reserving his strength for the main con- 
test with the prince of North Wales, could not be indiffe- 
rent to their ravages ; but with much gallantry of spirit, and 
with an honest desire of conciliating the affections of his 
former subjects, he suddenly attacked the foreigners, and 
forced them with great loss to retire to their ships." Highly 
creditable both to his bravery and his patriotism, as was this 
event, towards the main object of his enterprise Howel 
seems to have done nothing this year, although his great 
enemy was opposed by another foe, and even taken prisoner 
by Cunnan ab lago. But Griffith was soon rescued by his 
truly loving subjects of North Wales. 

In the two next years we find Howel ab Edwyn again at 
the head of warlike forces, indefatigable in the aim that he 
seems to have considered the only business of his life, the 
recovery of his wife and dominions ; but, alas! for the san- 
guine hopes of mortals ! those golden dreams of felicity for 
which he so often pined and nearly maddened in solitude, 
and fought and bled in the field, were never on earth to be 
realized. 

In the year 1042 the two hostile armies, commanded 
respectively by the princes Howel ab Edwyn and Griffith ab 
Llewelyn, met in the mountains of , South Wales, near the 
source of the river Towey, Carmarthenshire. Although 
strongly supported by certain Danish auxiliaries, and the 
friends, with their forces, who still adhered to his fortunes, 
the unfortunate Howel was completely defeated, the greater 
part of his arnry cut to pieces, and himself slain. Thus was 
the full measure of vengeance poured upon the head of this 
prince and family for the murder they had lately committed 
on the great and good prince Llewelyn ab Seisyllt, 



48 ANGHARAD. 

This was heavy news for the unhappy Angharad ; all hope 
of relief was now lost for ever ; and her captivity became per- 
petual, under the most degrading, added to the most lament- 
able of circumstances. It is probable, although the times were 
fierce and pitiless, that a mind so gentle could find no com- 
fort in the fierce passion of revenge ; or the degradation 
which befel Nest, Llewelyn's daughter, in the affair with 
Fleance the son of Banquo, might have proved to her that 
she was not alone in sorrow, but there was one beneath the 
same roof with her, a heavy sufferer. The particulars of 
Angharad's after-life, and the period of her death are alike 
unknown.* 

* The disastrous life and unhappy death of the fugitive prince Howel ah 
Edwyn naturally suggest striking reflections on the ill-defined nature of the 
national government of the Welsh princes generally ; and are highly illustrative 
of those anarchial disorders inherent in their imperfect system of succession. 
Some writers assert that the royal dignity became legally elective in Wales — 
while others hold the opinion that it was strictly hereditary, till extraordinary 
circumstances made it necessary, in the exigencies of the hour, to suspend the 
primogenial law of the land. Those extraordinary circumstances, were in fact the 
vices of the system, and became at length of ordinary and common occurrence. 
The vicious restlessness and turbulence of the semi-barbarous people, impelled 
them ever to seek a new chief, capable of present governing, on the decease of 
their sovereign : nor would they tolerate the long minority of a juvenile heir to 
the crown, although he might be the descendant of the best of their princes. The 
most patriotic chieftains or nobles of the country frequently coincided in the 
popular opinion that the bravest warrior and most consummate politician of the 
day should be elevated to the throne, but never stipulated whether he should 
possess it only during the non-age of the heir, or in perpetuity. Thus the problem 
of future government was left to the working of blind chance — the state impreg- 
nated with the seed of future wars, and the guardian knot of perplexity sub- 
jected to the edge of the keenest sword. Notwithstanding the violence inflicted 
on the law of primogeniture, by suppressing the hereditary claims of Howel ab 
Edwyn, doubtless it was beneficial to the nation, that it was successively 
governed by such superior, though usurping princes as Llewelyn ab Seisyllt, 
and his son, of Griffith ab Llewelyn. But other cases might be cited where the 
election of a new prince, conquests of civil war, and other disturbances of regu- 
lar succession, caused more evil than good, and tended more to licentious 
lawlessness and bloodshedding contention than either stability in government, 
or the happiness of the human race. 



n 



ANGHARAD, 



DAUGHTER OF OWEN AB EDWIN LORD OF ENGLEFIELD, AND 
QUEEN OF GRIFFITH AB CUNNAN, KING OF NORTH WALES. 

" Angharad, ab Cunnaa's * wise Queen of the North. 



t\xS 



As the Welsh princes were no strangers to the policy of 
forming alliances by marriage with the heiresses, to princi- 
palities, or the daughters of powerful princes whose forces 
could aid them in all emergencies for defence or invasion, 
it is curious to observe a departure from this interested, 
but almost essential custom, in so prudent a prince as Grif- 
fith ab Cunnan. Instead of seeking a wife among the 
daughters of the reigning princes of his time, much as he 
needed such an alliance, he seems to have been enslaved by the 
surpassing charms of Angharad, daughter of Owen ab Ed- 
wyn 'ab Gorono,f a subject, lord of Englefield whom he 
wooed, won, and wedded, when he might have had ladies of 
regal parentage (as the homely saying goes) " for the 
asking." 

Although of the legitimate line of princes, Griffith ab 
Cunnan had been excluded from the succession to the throne 
of North "Wales in consequence of his youth in the first 
instance, and afterwards from the well supported usurpa- 
tions of different warlike adventurers. But the result of 
the decisive battle of Carno, in which, by the aid of his 
Irish auxiliaries, and prince Rhys ab Tewdwr of South 



* In Welsh written Cynan, and pronounced as above. 

t Owen ab Edwyn was by descent one of the numerous princes of Powys 
or central Wales, who by the disastrous law of gavelkind had their original sove- 
reignties so divided, that in the course of a few generations their " dominions" 
dwindled into estates, and at length into mere farms. Happy had it been for 
themselves and the country, if contentment accompanied their reduction of 
rank ; but so far was that from being the case, that they were ever engaged in 
some turbulent undertaking for seizing the possessions of others, and holding 
them by force of arms, till subdued and expelled by superior powers. 



h 



50 ANGHARAD. 

Wales, he slew Trahaern ab Caradoc and defeated his 
forces, seated him securely on the throne of his ancestors. 

Griffith ab Cunnan was born in 1047, consequently on 
his accession to the crown of North "Wales, in 1079, he was 
thirty-two years of age, about which time he may be sup- 
posed to have married Angharad, who must then have been 
under the age of twenty. A deplorable misfortune which 
happened to her husband, soon after their union, made 
Angharad early acquainted with grief, and drugged her 
cup of happiness with exceeding bitterness. 

" A native of Wales, called Meiron Gjch (Red Meirion), 
entered into a conspiracy to betray him into the hands of 
the English. Agreeably to the plan which had been pre- 
viously concerted with the earls of Shrewsbury and Ches- 
ter, a strong body of infantry and horse were stationed at 
Rug* in Edeyrnion. The snare being laid, Griffith ab 
Cunnan was desired by his treacherous subject, at the 
instance of the two English lords, to give them the meeting, 
under the colour of a friendly conference. With a simple 
confidence, which neither agreed with the character of the 
times nor with the dictates of prudence, the Welsh king 
came to the place appointed, attended only by a few re- 
tainers, whom he had brought out of Ireland. He had no 
sooner made his appearance, than he was seized, and car- 
ried in chains to the castle of Chester. His Irish atten- 
dants were allowed to depart, without receiving any other 
injury than the loss of a thumb, which was cut off from the 
right hand of each. This instance of whimsical barbarity 
might arise from the instigation of Meirion Goch, who 
from the prejudices of his country, would detest them as 
foreigners, and who might also resent the partiality which 
this prince had always entertained for the Irish." f 

The captivity of Griffith ab Cunnan was extended to a 
period of twelve years ; and was, doubtless, intended to 
have been continued till released by the friendly hand of 



* Rug is pronounced Reeg. 

t Warrington. It appears to us there was move than mere " whimsical bar- 
barity" in this affair. By the deprivation of the thumb of the right hand, 
these men were for ever disabled from acting as soldiers, as they could neither 
draw the bowstring nor effectively grasp either a sword, spear, or battle axe. 



ANGHARAD. 51 

death. But that dreadful fate was averted by the devoted 
patriotism of an humble individual, one of Nature's own 
nobles, whose gallant daring in rescuing his sovereign from 
his long durance, richly merited a title of nobility in the 
land of his birth. But in the absence of such . an hour, 
posterity awarded him something better, perpetual fame 
and ever- verdant laurel in the annals of his nation. As if 
to compensate a country stigmatised by the production of 
the traitor Meirion Goch, the same district gave birth to 
the young hero who now became the deliverer of his prince. 
But we will give the relation in the words of history. 
" The situation of this prince excited the compassion of a 
young man, named Kenric Heer * (Kenric the tall), a 
native of Edeyrnion, who determined, if possible, to ef- 
fect his escape out of prison, though at every hazard to 
himself. The enterprize was bold, generous, and full of 
danger. Attended by a few followers, he repaired to Ches; 
ter, under pretence of purchasing necessaries, and having 
early in the evening gained admittance into the castle, 
while the keepers were engaged in feasting, he carried on 
his back the captive prince, loaded with chains, and con- 
veyed him with safety into his own dominions. It is with 
pleasure we contemplate an action like this, heroic in it- 
self, and directed by a principle of masculine virtue.""j* 

We are not informed what became of Angharad during 
the twelve years of her husband's captivity. But as North 
Wales and Powys were overrun and ravaged by the En- 
glish immediately on the seizure and imprisonment of 
Griffith ab Cunnan, it is probable she made her escape and 
found an asylum with her father at Englefield. In the year 
1080 she became the mother of a son, who was christened 
after her father, by the name of Owen. To nurse this boy, 
who became so famous in after time, as the renowned hero 
Owen Gwyneth,+ was the sweetest solace of the young 
mother, during the long-lasting 'captivity of her lord and 
husband. When at length restored to his freedom by the 
heroic action of Kenric Heer, it was long, very long before 

* In Welsh orthography, Cennric_H ir. t Warrington. 

% In Welsh written Owain Gwynedd. 

d2 



52 ANGHABAD. 

she could rejoin him with her royal son. Warrington says : 
" Though Griffith ab Cunnan had thus fortunately escaped 
out of the hands of his enemies, he had many difficulties 
still to encounter — as his own subjects were either dis- 
spirited, or alienated from him, and the English were 
masters of the country. His danger was sometimes so 
great, that he was obliged to lie concealed in woods, and 
other places of security. But after he had endured a va- 
riety of evils, and taken those castles which the Normans 
had erected during his captivity, he recovered the entire 
possession of his kingdom." 

Angharad had too much of real, true, generous woman- 
hood in her nature, to wait for the sunny days of prosperity, 
but determined to hasten to her husband, in spite of all 
obstacles, to solace him in the dark and stormy season of 
his adversity, and share all his fortunes whether weal or woe. 
Beside her affectionate desire to rejoin her lord after so 
long a separation, she had a powerful reason for taking 
both a sudden and secret flight from her paternal habita- 
tion. What fixed her mind in this resolution was, she had 
at this time the bitter mortification to suspect, that her 
father had turned traitor, and was in actual rebellion 
against his sovereign and son-in-law, and in sworn alliance 
with the invaders of his dominions. It would be inter- 
esting to know all particulars of the manner by which this 
model of feminine fidelity succeeded in escaping through 
disturbed districts overrun with the armed invaders and 
desolaters of her country, with her bold, resolute, but well 
instructed son, now in the sixteenth year of his age — in 
what peasant or pilgrim disguises they threaded thus the 
perils of the way — what forest they crossed, what marsh, 
and moorland, and sylvan scenes they traversed, on their 
sure-footed mountain steeds, under the faithful guidance 
of an attached servant, well qualified in the art of duping 
all dangerous interrogators who might be disposed to inter- 
rupt their journey. It would be pleasant to be enlight- 
ened, even by a legend, however doubtful, of the particulars 
of their progress — what towering castles frowned upon their 
way, and with ghastly eyelets glared their bloodless faces 



ANGHARAD. 53 

into stone, as they noted the threatening arrow points pre- 
pared for flight from the death- dealing Norman bows — and 
■what holy brotherhoods gave them welcome to their monas- 
teries and relieved their exhaustion with the much»needed 
blessings of shelter, bed, and board, after days and nights of 
exposure to the midnight storm, and all the agitating ter- 
rors of being taken prisoners, or perishing with hunger in 
the stormy wilds. The details of their sufferings, however, 
remain unchronicled. It is probable that it was towards 
the latter end of the year 1096, Angharad succeeded in 
finding her husband, in the midst of warfare, encamped in the 
island of Anglesea— now, the sole remaining remnant of his 
dominions, as sovereign of North Wales. And what a meet- 
ing of touching tenderness and overwhelming rapture must 
that have been to each of them. That long-parted pair, 
who had been sundered almost since their marriage, six- 
teen years before — the blooming youth, who then for the 
first time, beheld his heroic father, the subject of his 
mother's eulogies, and the songs of tn^ patriot bards, since 
the earliest dawn of his youthful intellect — clasped in that 
father's arms, who never before had seen hrsJace — in mutual 
ecstasy of sorrow-mixed endearments. ^^^-^ 

Although the great object of her perilous pilgrimage was 
now attained, Angharad soon found the household god 
Tranquility was not within their palace gates ; but that 
terror, disquietude, and alarm were to be their spectral 
familiars, their hourly companions in their reduced sove- 
reignty—that their throne was placed on a volcano, whose 
explosion was daily to be dreaded ; and that the threat of 
the English king to exterminate the inhabitants of North 
"Wales, and to re-people it with his own subjects, appeared 
to be progressing towards a terrible completion. Again she 
had to endure a temporary parting with her lord ; and at 
this time with her son Owen. She was left in the best secu- 
rity at the palace of Abervraw, in the island of Anglesea, 
while they joined the army on the opposite side of the 
Straights of Menai, to oppose the advance of the English. 

" At the secret instigation of the treacherous lord of 
Englefield, Owen ab Edwyn (the unworthy father of Ang- 



harad), and of other chieftains of North Wales, a very 
formidable army invaded that country, under the command of 
the earls of Chester and Shrewsbury. Griffith ab Cunnan 
and his friend Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, not being able on a 
sudden to collect a force sufficient to oppose them, and 
already suspecting treason, had no confidence in their troops, 
therefore, with great foresight and prudence, gave way for a 
time, and retired into the mountains, for security and ob- 
servation. The two earls, meeting with no resistance, 
continued their march into that part of Carnarvonshire which 
lies opposite Anglesea. Griffith ab Cunnan and his son, in 
terrible alarm for the safety of Angharad, and the danger 
which threatened his seat of government, returned to An- 
glesea, attended by his associate Cadwgan — and having 
received a slight reinforcement from Ireland, he seemed 
determined to defend the island. At this critical moment 
Owen ab Edwyn, Angharad' s father, who was in high trust 
with Griffith, openly avowed his treason, deserted from the 
banners of bis country, the service of his sovereign, and the 
protection of his own daughter, and with his whole forces 
joined the English army. Alarmed at the perfidy and 
revolt of so power. ul a chieftain, and unable to oppose the 
united force of the enemy, Griffith ab Cunnan, with the aid 
of the faithful Cadwgan, embarked his whole family and 
friends and set sail for Ireland, where they arrived in safety. 
In Ireland they experienced the hospitality of the gene- 
rous king of Dublin, whose court was always open to the 
unfortunate refugee princes of Wales. Here they sojourned 
two years of mournful exile from the disasters of their poor 
country, whose inhabitants were doomed to the direst fate of 
houseless destitution, or butchery, at the hands of their 
victorious invaders.* During their residence in Ireland 
Angharad gave birth to a young prince and princess, respect- 
ively named Cadwalader and Marret. 

* For a relation of the wanton barbarities exercised by the English on the 
Welsh, on the conquest of Anglesea, in the year 1096, we refer the reader to 
the pages of Warrington's history of Wales, 8vo. vol. i.,p. 396. But this his- 
torian, with his usual aptitude to find excuses for the enormities of the English, 
calls this terrible affair, " a full measure of retaliation for the cruelties which 
they had committed on the English borders," although he is unable to state the 
particulars of these imputed cruelties. 



ANGHARAD. 55 

Unable to endure a longer absence from his country, in the 
year 1098, Griffith ab Cunnan, accompanied by his princess 
and family, and attended by Cadwgan ab Bleddyn, returned 
into Wales, and yielding to the deplorable exigencies of the 
times, he made peace with the English upon terms of great 
disadvantage. The death of William Rufus, and accession 
of king Henry I. ; to the English throne, followed ; while the 
death of Rhys ab Tewdwr, who fell in battle, and the suc- 
cessful invasion of the Norman knights, deprived South 
Wales of two of its best provinces — and of its monarchial 
independence. 

The succeeding thirty years from this period, is but the 
history of English encroachment, Welsh resistance, and 
ultimate retreat, into the mountainous regions — while their 
adversaries, advancing into the abandoned plains and vallies, 
built their monasteries in all the fairest and most fertile 
districts. But a great day of retribution was at hand, that 
came at length in all its terrors, to the invaders of the 
Cambrian soil. 

Many years previous to the favourable occurrences about 
to be related, certain matters of domestic interest took place 
in the royal family of North Wales — among which may be 
stated the birth of their son Cadwallon, and four daughters.* 
Angharad and her husband had also the happiness to see their 
eldest son Owen, who had assumed the surname of Gwyneth, 
married to Gwladys, the daughter of Llywarch ab Trahaern,f 
lord of Pembroke. Some years later their youngest daugh- 
ter Gwenllian was married to Griffith ab Rhys, sovereign 
prince of South Wales, still all was not felicity in their 
domestic circle ; while yet a very young man their younger 
son Cadwallon was taken prisoner on the English borders, 
and immediately put to death. As the dates of these dif- 
ferent occurrences are not recorded, it is impossible to trace 

* These were Susanna, Ranullt, Nest, and Gwenlian. 

t Llywarchern was the son of Trahaern ab Caradoc, who was prince of North 
Wales, till defeated and killed at the battle of Carno by Griffith ab Cunnan. 
Nothing could have been more politic than this marriage between the son of 
Griffith and the daughter of Llywarch, considering the power, grievance, and 
malignity of that ferocious chief, whose murderous exploits are detailed in the 
memoirs of Nest, daughter of Rhys ab Tewdwr, and of Gwenllian, wife of 
Griffith ab Rhys. It was the pacific union of two hostile houses — the son of a 
dethroned prince united to the daughter of a reigning sovereign. 



56 ANCHARAD. 

them at this distance of time, with any thing like certainty, 
except the marriage of Gwenllian, which must have taken 
place about the year 1116. Some time previous to this date 
we find Griffith ab Cunnan deserting the integrity of his 
character, cajoled by the false courtesies and presents of 
Henry I., whose court he was induced to visit ; he actually 
attempted the destruction of Griffith ab Rhys, the young 
prince of South Wales, who afterwards became his son-in-law, 
although Rhys ab Tewdwr, the father of Griffith, had been 
mainly instrumental in recovering for him the throne which 
he then occupied. But as the prince of North Wales after- 
wards made amends, ratifying by his approval, his daughter's 
marriage with the son of his ancient friend, history deals 
leniently with this dark spot in his otherwise unsullied 
career. 

The events of the succeeding twenty years, as far as they 
affect the personage of this memoir, will find their more 
appropriate place, according to the arrangements of this 
work, in the life of the princess Gwenllian, whose marriage 
is referred to above ; therefore, we come at once to the period 
of immense changes in the political hemisphere of Wales 
and England. 

The year 1135 produced the great blessing to Wales of 
the death of King Henry I., and the usurpation of the crown 
of England by King Stephen. A grand retribution was 
manifest in the wonderful reaction which followed this 
change of dynasties. The princes and chieftains of Wales, 
reviving from the paralysis with which overwhelming 
calamity had stricken them, sprung into new life, like the 
awakened dead at the sound of the final trumpet. For once 
they forgot their native animosities, and seemed united in 
the general virtuous resolution to reconquer their country, 
and drive the foreign invaders beyond their ancient boundary. 
Prince Griffith ab Rhys, with his heroic wife Gwenllian, rose 
up in the south ; in Powys every chieftain with inspiring 
energy was busy in the work of expulsion and restoration ; 
while in the north, Griffith ab Cunnan, assisted by his two 
gallant sons (Owen Gwyneth and Cadwalader), succeeded 
in regaining every portion of his lost dominions. 



ANGHAKAD. 57 

During the triumph of the national arms, and the ac- 
companiments of public rejoicing, the royal family of North 
Wales experienced a private calamity of the most distressing 
nature, that plunged them all from the height of felicity 
into the deepest gloom of anguish. This was the death of 
their youngest daughter Gwenllian, queen of South Wales, 
in a manner the most violent and unprecedented ever re- 
corded by the pen of history. As the particulars of that 
tragic catastrophe are related in the memoirs of that princess, 
it is unnecessary to repeat them here. 

It is especially due to the memory of Angharad, to take a 
review of the characters of her children, formed under her 
own auspices, and developed under different circumstances 
in after time. This exemplary princes presents to us the 
noblest phase of true womanhood, in the perfection of the 
maternal character which she personally manifested. The 
brightest effulgence of the hallowed relationship of mother 
is best exhibited in the conduct of the children she has 
nurtured, taught, and embellished with the best acquirements 
her time afforded ; and those of A.ngharad, whose names so 
pre-eminently stand forth in history, glorify their mother in 
the merited eulogies which they received : anterior, of 
course, to the era when the selfish fooleries of fine-ladyism 
imposed on society the pestilent infliction of the hireling 
nurse and mercenary governess, for, be it remembered, we are 
treating of nature's own epoch, when princely matrons did 
not disdain, personally to nurse, tend, and implant the earliest 
seed of instruction in the infant mind of their progeny. 

After treating in a high strain of eulogy on the heroism 
displayed by queen Gwenllian, at the time she met her death, 
Warrington writes thus of the merits of her two brothers who 
undertook to avenge the death of their sister, whom the 
brutal English general, Maurice de Londres, had caused to be 
beheaded. 

" Alive to an injury so singular and atrocious, her brothers, 
Owen Gwyneth and Cadwalader, laid waste with infinite 
fury the province of Cardigan. Among a people whose 
manners seem to have been little refined by chivalrous feeling, 
we are surprised at the appearance of characters whose in- 



58 Angharad. 

dividual qualities and bravery of spirit, whose courteous and 
gentle demeanour, might have entitled them to dispute the 
palm with the most accomplished knights of feudal ages. 
These distinguished persons were the sons of Griffith ab 
Cunnan." , 

Angharad, though many years her husband's junior, had 
now arrived at that period when life is declining towards its 
"sere and yellow leaf;" but sorrow more than years produced 
its usual effect. We are told that besides his legitimate chil- 
dren Griffith ab Cunnan had no less than five others, by "ano- 
ther woman.'' Although the vicjous custom of concubinage^., 
was too commonly indulged by theWelsH^sdV'ertJlgrrg'jTb be 
considered by their queens in the light of bitter grievances, 
or divorcible offences, yet it is not to be supposed that such 
evil was not without its due weight of infelicity in the conjugal 
state. But the mind of Angharad appears to have been 
deeply imbued with the dictates of woman's best philosophy, 
that sweet enduring patience, and studied prudence, which 
enabled her to neutralize, and ultimately to triumph over 
the gall and wormwood of that peculiar infliction, by in- 
dulging in the meek reflection, that no fault of her own 
had given birth to the evil ; and that, in the eye of omni- 
potence, and even that of her own erring lord, she stood 
exonerated from all personal imputation of faults of temper, 
or imperious assumption of superior merit. 

As she advanced further in years Angharad had to bend 
beneath a load of accumulated sorrows, which religion alone 
could alleviate, but nothing remove; — sorrows no. less sacred 
than affecting, from the harsh and untimely removals from 
this scene of existence of those near and most dear ones, 
whose infancy she had nursed — little deeming, in their days 
of youth and innocence* they were destined for a bloody grave. 
She had successively to bewail the violent deaths of her son 
Cadwalader, her daughter Gwenllian, and her grandson 
Morgan ; the latter killed with his mother, at the battle of 
Kidwelly ; * and lastly, for her gallant son in law Griffith ab 
Rhys, king of South "Wales, who died in 1137, having sur- 
vived his beloved wife but two years. The next year 

* In Welsh written Cidwelli, but pronounced Kidwelley. 



ANGHARAD. 59 

brought with it the crowning sorrow of all, the death of her 
venerable husband Griffith ab Cunnan at the advanced age 
of eight j- two ; af(er a prolonged reign of fifty years over the 
principality of North Wales. This prince had eight children 
by his queen, Angharad; and five by a mistress. The names 
of the former were, Owen Gwyneth, Cadwalader, and Cad- 
wallon; Marrett, Susanna, Ranulft, Nest, and Gwenllian; and 
of the latter, Iago, Ascain, and Edwal ; Dolhing,and Ellen.* 

Perhaps there can be no fairer criterion by which to judge 
of a woman's worth, than by the estimation in which she is 
held by her husband at the latest period previous to his final 
farewell to herself and the world. By the wording of his 
will, and the disposal of his worldly possessions, he is en- 
abled to evince the comparative extent of his love, resent- 
ment, or indifference ; either feeling curbed and corrected, 
according to the acknowledged measure of her merits, or 
claims upon his justice or affection. For, however stern, or 
sensitive to offence, real or supposed, a man may be in his 
full glow and insolence of health and prosperity, towards the 
closing scene of life, "a change comes o'er the spirit of his 
dream," and the humbliDg process of self-examination, pro- 
duces the blessed fruit of charity, mercy, and all the better 
attributes of the christian state. The lesson and terms of 
forgiveness, too, as taught in the prayer of frequent recurrence, 
becomes then something more than a heartless utterance of 
words, and has its due weight in the meditative hour pre- 
ceeding our latest look on life and its concerns. Examined 
by this test, Angharad comes off triumphantly. She had 
assigned to her a larger portion of her dying lord's possessions 
than could be expected for a queen dowager of those days, 
when there were so many left, whose helpless condition 
called for his provident consideration. 

Griffith ab Cunnan's death-bed scene is solemnly in- 
teresting, from the air of patriarchal simplicity imparted to 
it by the " ancient monk" by whom it is described.f " His 

* Warrington in his history of Wales has not given the names of this prince's 
daughters, a remarkable omission in a work professing to be a national history. 

t " Griffith ab Cynan, his troublesome life and famous acts are compiled in 
Welsh," says Sir John Wynne of Gwydir, " by a most anncient friar, or monk 
of Wales ;" " and," continues the historian, " this was found by the posterity of 
the said Griffith, in the house of Gwydir ; and at the request of Maurice Wynne, 



60 ANGHARAI*. 

sons were among them, and he blessed them, and foretold 
their fortune, and what peculiar character each should sup- 
port, as the patriarch Jacob did on taking his dying leave of 
his sons in Egypt. And he solemnly enjoined them to 
combat their enemies, with vigour and constancy, after the 
examples he had set them. Angharad his queen was present, 
to whom he bequeathed one-half of his personal estate, with 
two rhandir or portions of land, and the customs of Aber- 
menai. His daughters and nephews were also present ; and 
he left to each a legacy, sufficient for their maintenance." 
The following account of the general regret in foreign states, 
on the death of Griffith, concluding with a description of his 
person, in ourj?JxLmoji|:Js tt usual style, is not without interest. 

" The*"Welsh, the Irish, and the men of Denmark, lamented 
Griffith, as the Jews mourned for Joshua ; he was eighty-two 
years old, and was buried on the left side of the great altar 
at Bangor. And let us pray that his soul, &c/' 

" Griffith in his person was of moderate stature, having 
yellow hair, a round face, and a fair agreeable complexion; 
eyes rather large, light eyebrows, a comelie beard, a round 
neck, white skin, strong limbs, long fingers, straight legs, 
and handsome feet. He was moreover skilful in divers 
languages, courteous and civil to his friends, fierce to his 
foes, and resolute in battle. Of a passionate temper, and 
fertile imagination." 

Angharad outlived her husband many years, but the exact 
period of her decease is unknown. She is supposed to be 
buried by his side, near the great altar at Bangor. With 
whimsical minuteness and brevity her person and merits are 
thus drawn and summed up by the pen of our old Welsh 
nionk before quoted. 

" She was an accomplished person — her hair was long and 
of a flaxen colour — her eyes large and rolling, and her fea- 
tures brilliant and beautiful. She was tall and well-propor- 
tioned — her leg and foot handsome — her fingers long, and her 
nails thin and transparent. She was good tempered, cheerful, 
discreet, and witty — gave advice, as well as alms to her 
needy dependants, and never transgressed the laws of duty." 

Esq , had the same written in a most anncient book, and was lineally descended 
from him. Was translated into Latin, by INicholas llobinson, bishop of Bangor." 



£f 






ANGHARAD THE NO, 

DAUGHTER OF THE LADY NEST, AND IVOR HAEL LORD 
OF MAESALEG, MONMOUTHSHIRE, IN THE FOURTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

This lady was doubtless the first love of the poet Davyth ab 
Gwilym, of whom so much has been written in this work 
under the heads of Ardidvil, Angharad, Deethgee, and 
Morvyth of Mona. It has been mentioned in the memoir 
of Ardidvil, that in consequence of disagreement with his 
parents he quitted them, and was kindly received at Gwern- 
y-gleppa, in the lordship of Maesaleg, in Monmouthshire, 
where he enjoyed the friendship and patronage of Ivor Hael, 
a near relative of his father. 

"Ivor, deservedly surnamed Hael, or 'the generous,'* 
received his young kinsman with an affectionate kindness, 
which he even carried so far as to appoint him his steward 
and the instructor of his only daughter (the lady of our 
memoir), although Davyth ab Gwilym' s qualifications for 
these duties, were not, it is probable, at that time, of the most 
obvious character, At least the inconvenient effects of one 
of these appointments was too soon apparent in the reci- 
procal attachment that grew up between the poet and his 
fair charge. The precise nature of Ivor's conduct towards 
the former, on the discovery of this circumstance, is un- 
known ; but he appears to have treated him with an 
indulgence which his own regard for the enamoured tutor 
could alone explain. He is recorded, however, to have been 
somewhat severe in the treatment of his daughter, whom 

• The Morgans of Tredegar and Rupera, previous to their alliance with the 
English family of the Goulds, could boast their descent from that splendid 
chieftain Ivor Hael. By the English union a double spirit of liberality has 
poured its beneficence on the land under their influence. The universally ac- 
knowledged benevolence and generosity of the late Sir Charles Morgan, his 
fatherly protection and support of the poor and afflicted, and his patronage of 
every thing laudable in industrial pursuits, have won the plaudits of an admiring 
and grateful country that will long venerate and bless his memory, and respect 
his worthy descendants. 



62 



ANGHARAD the nun. 



he forthwith conveyed to a convent in the island of Angle- 
sea. Thither she was followed by her devoted swain, who, 
in the humble capacity of a servant at a neighbouring mo- 
nastery, consoled himself during his hours of disappointed 
love, by offering to his mistress the tributes of his muse — all 
he had then to bestow ; and several poems of considerable 
beauty are still extant, said to have been written during 
this period. The following forms one of his poetical epis- 
tles, in which he instructs a swift winged bird to lure " the 
nun"* to the grove : — 

True messenger of love— away ! 
And from the Marches bring in May: 
Thou truant ! thou wert not at hand 
When most the hard in need did stand 
Of thy tame wings ! oh ! seek once more 
The place thou visitedst of yore, 
Thou of fair form and flight sublime, 
Visit the damsels white as lime I 
If in the churchyard thou shouldst meet 
The gaolerf of the maiden, greet 
("Thou poet's treasure, fair and fleet I) 
Her ears with psalms of all the ills 
With which that maid my bosom fills ! 
Bless'd nuns, fair saints, from ev'ry land. 
In their bright cells my suit withstand : 
Those sacred snow-hued virgins, white 
As gossamer, on mountain height ; 
Those maids, like swallows to behold 
Those holy damsels of the choir, 
Sisters to Morvyth,J bright as gold t 
Oh ! visit her at my desire ; 
And if thy efforts vain should be, 
To lure her from the priory, 
And thou the snow-complexioned maid 
With songs of praise canst not persuade 
Her lover in the grove to meet, 
Then carry her upon thy feet — 
Delude the nun who, in yon shrine 
Rings the small bell||— the abbess cheat f 
Before the summer moon shall shine 
With pure white ray, the black-robed nun 
To the green woodland must be won ! 

* It seems most probable that she had not actually become a nun, but was 
merely an inmate in the nunnery; perhaps for the double purpose of being 
educated, and at the same time kept out of the way of harm. 

t Probably the abbess is meant. 

X This lady, the chief object of the poet's love and songs, was a native of 
Anglesea, and it is, perhaps, for that reason that he calls the nuns her sisters. 

U In "Welsh " clochyddes"— an office in the Roman catholic service. 



ANGHARAD THE NUN. 63 

At length, apparently weary of his fruitless fidelity, he 
returned to the hospitable mansion of his patron ; and the 
welcome manner in which he seems to have been again 
received, proves that his affection for the daughter had not 
produced any serious displeasure on the part of her father, 
however, from motives of prudence the latter might have 
thought it advisable to discountenance the attachment. 
The young poet seems also at this period to have been 
reconciled to his parents, between whose house and Gwern- 
y-gleppa his time was divided. 

During the second residence with Ivor, Davyth ab 
Gw ilym must in all probability have devoted much attention 
to the cultivation of^his favourite pursuit, since we find him, 
about this period, elected to fill the post of chief bard of 
Glamorgan.* His poetical reputation made him also a wel- 
come, and, in some respects, a necessary guest at the festivals 
which, in those long- departed days of social cheer and 
princely hospitality, were common in the houses of the 
higher orders in Wales. The mansions of Ivor Hael and 
Llewelyn ab Gwilym were the frequent scenes of these 
festive assemblies, at which particular respect was shown 
to the sons of the awen.f And here it was that Davyth ab 
Gwilym seems to have had the first opportunity of signal- 
izing himself amongst his bardic compeers, in those poetical 
contests, formerly so frequent in Wales, and which are not 
even now wholly discontinued. It was at Emlyn, the seat 
of his uncle Llewelyn, that, on one of these occasions, the 
deep rooted enmity which existed between him and a 
brother bard named Rhys Meigan, had its origin, and 
became the fertile source of the most satirical and even 
virulent strains on both sides. The laurel in this " war of 
words" was, however, finally adjudged to the subject of 
this memoir, whose antagonist is even reported to have 
fallen dead on the spot, a victim to the unendurable poig- 
nancy of our poet's satire. Strange and incredible as this 

* Dr. Jones in his history of Wales says— "in 1630 he was elected to the 
bardic chair of Glamorgan, and in succeeding years composed several poetic 
pieces with a talent and taste hitherto denied to Welsh versifiers, and which 
entitle him to the epithet of the father of Welsh poetry." 



t Awen, a Welsh word implying poetic genius, or inspiration. 
e2 



64 ANGHARAD THE NUN. 

incident may appear, it is in a great measure confirmed by 
one of Davyth ab Gwilym's effusions, in which he alludes 
with some minuteness, to the extraordinary occurrence. 

Doubtless the happiest days of our bard's life were those 
that he spent in the house of Ivor Hael, which may be 
gathered from the poems that he wrote, breathing of enjoy- 
ment, high spirits, and fervent gratitude, while an inmate 
of that hospitable mansion. 

In one of these spirited productions, we find him sending 
a messenger to Anglesea to acquaint his friends that he did 
not intend to return thither in consequence of the kind 
reception which he met with from Ivor. In that curious 
poem we have many interesting allusions both to the indoor 
pastimes and field sports of the times. 

" Honours great for me are stored 
If I live, from Ivor's hand, 
Hound and huntsman at command, 

Daily banquet at this board, 
(Princely baron !) at the game 
With his piercing shafts to aim ; 
And to let his falcons fly 
On the breezes of the sky. 
* * * » 

Dice and draughts, and every sport, 
Of Maesaleg's joyous court, 
Will the host who governs there 
Freely with the poet share." 

In another poem, written previous to going on his clera* 
expedition to North Wales, he thanks Ivor for the muni- 
ficence with which he had been treated during his stay at 
Maesaleg. 

" I obtained from thee the gifts I desired, 

Kind words and silver, 

And pure gold, 

And gay French arms ; 

Abundance of mead and wine, 

Jewels fit for a second Taliesin ." 

* The clera expedition means the tour or circuit made by the bards of Wales 
once in three years, when in a high spirit of festal hospitality they were re- 
ceived by the nobility and gentry of the country at their castles and mansions 
with incredible cordiality of welcome : this noble entertainment they returned 
by reciting their poems composed in praise of their patrons. For the best ac- \ 
count extant of the bards and bardism of Wales we refer the reader to Stephens' \ 
" Literature of the Kymry," recently published, one of the most complete and I 
comprehensive of works ever dedicated to the service of Wales; and a valuable / 
acquisition to every student or writer on Celtic or European antiquities. 



ANGHARAD THE NUN. v 65 

In a spirited poem also written on the occasion of his 
departure for North Wales, he expresses his gratitude to 
Ivor for what appears to have been a very acceptable present 
— that of a pair of buckskin gloves full of money; the 
right-hand glove filled with gold, and the left with silver,* 
he says — 

" From hi3 grasp these gloves to gain, 
Maidens oft have vied in vain ; 
For the bard to fair or friend, 
Ivor's gift will never lend." 

He then proceeds to express his sense of his patron's libe- 
rality in a strain of considerable beauty, still extolling his 
buckskin gloves as superior to those of sheepskin, and such 
as were worn by the " surly Saxon ;" an epithet with which 
he generally honours the English nation, and by reiterating 
the praises of his benefactor. But the opening couplet of 
this poem sufficiently explains how well Ivor deserved the 
surname of " the generous." / 

" All who Ivor's palace leave, \ 

Gold from Ivor's hand receive." # * 

We shall conclude this Memoir with another poem ad- 
dressed by the bard to our " nun : " it appears to be the 
first which he addressed to her after her entrance into the. 
sacred sisterhood. From the poet's description of his three 
beauties Angharad, Doethgee, and Morvyth, it would appear \ 
that the two first were black-eyed, raven-haired brunettes ; 
and the last, whom he calls — 

1 

was what in these days would be called a blonde, 

" The dark- eyed maid my love hath won, 
And hence all food and rest I shun, 
Oh, did my heart another prize, 
None but the fool would deem me wise ! 

* Mr. Arthur J. Johnes, appends the following interesting note: — " It was\ 
the custom of those times to make presentsof money in gloves. When Sir Thos. \ 
More was chancellor, in the time of Henry VIII., a Mrs. Croker, for whom" he \ 
made a decree against Lord Arundel, came to him to request his acceptance of 
of a pair of gloves, in which were contained forty pounds in angels; he told 
her with a smile, that it would be ill manners to refuse a lady's present, but ] 
though he should keep the gloves, he must return the gold, which he enforced ^ 
herto receive."— Life of Sir John More, by Sir James Mackintosh, in Lardner's / 
Cyclopedia. / 



" Maid of the glowing form and lily brow 
Beneath a roof of golden tresses." 



66 ANGHARAD THE NUN. 

Girl of my love, and can it be, 

That the luxuriant birchen tree 

Of summer, has no charms for thee ? 

That thou dost ceaselessly repeat 

Thy Psalter in yon stiU retreat ? 

And that, oh, star-hued maid ! thou art 

Of yonder holy choir a part ? 

Hence with the bread and water— hence 
With the vile crosses — and dispense 
With pater nosters — and give o'er 
The Romish monk's religious lore : 
Join not ia Spring the devotees, 
Groves are more bright than nunneries ; 
Thy vows, oh ! beauty, bright and mild ! 
With love cannot be reconciled ; 
The ring, the cloak, the verdant dress 
Are better pledge of holiness. 
Haste to the knotted birchen tree, 
And learn the Cuckoo's piety"; 
There in the greenwood will thy mind 
A path to heaven, oh ! lady, find. 
There Ovid's volume shalt thou read, 
And there a spotless fife we'll lead, 
A life of liberty where rise 
The woodbines o'er the precipice. 
Doubt not there, too, thou maystbe " shriven," 
Full absolution may be given ; 
!Nor is it harder to reach heaven 
For those who make the groves their home 
Than to the sojourners at Rome." 

It appears Angharad paid but slight regard to these 
poetic flights, but became greatly attached to a monastic 
life from the commencement of her noviciate, and readily 
took the final vows which separated her from all further 
concerns with the world. However, she died soon after her 
entrance into the holy sisterhood ; and a pathetic elegy on 
her death appears among the poems of Davy th ab Gwilym. 



/ 



ARDIDVIL,* 



"WIFE OF GWILYM GAM, AND MOTHEJL_QFTI 



BARD DAYYTH AB GWILYM. -L ,% , 

This lady lived in the fourteenth century ; she was a native 
of South Wales, allied to some of the principal magnates of 
the land, and sister to Llewelyn ab Gwilym Vychan of 
Emlyn ; a person of considerable importance in that part 
of the country, styled in some accounts lord of Cardigan, 
and was the proprietor of D61 Goch in that county. 

About the year 1339 she was united to Gwilym Gam, but 
it would seem, not by the ceremonies of the church : such 
was the state of Isociety in those days, that the omission of 
the hqlyjtite was not considered either derogatorylo mora- 
lity or respectability. In speaking of the renowned son of 
this lady, hereafter to be noticed, from whom she derives 
her only claim to celebrity, his biographer, Arthur James 
Johnes, gives a differen t turn to this circumstance. He 
says, " whatever may have been Davyth ab Gwilym's pre- 
tensions to an illustrious descent, there is reason to believe 
that his birth was illegitimate, or, at leas t, that the union of 
his parents, if it had been previously sanctioned by legal 
rites, had not received the countenance of their friends." 
Ardidvil's husband, Gwilym Gam, was a descendant of Lly- 
warch ab Bran, head of one of the " fifteen tribes,'* who 
composed the aristocracy of that division of Wales, and. 
related by marriage to Prince Owen Gwyneth, a monarch 
no less distinguished as a patron of genius than by the 
valour and sagacity with which he protected the liberties 
of his country against the ambitious projects of Henry II. 
of England. 

The residence of Ardidvil and her husband was at 
BroGynin, in the parish of Llanbadarn-vawr, Cardigan- 
shire, where, about the year 1340, she gave birth to a boy, 
who in after years became no less an honour to his family 
than the glory of his country as one of the most eminent of 
her bards. This was no other than the celebrated amator y 
poet Davyth ab Gwilym. 

* In Welsh written Ardudvul, but pronounced as above. 



68 AEDIDVIL. 

Of Ardidvil, personally, we have scarcely anything more 
to rela te : but as parents, however obscure in their own 
lives, may be said to partake, in some degree, of the celebrity 
of their progeny, according to the plan of this work, we shall 
now proceed to give a slight sketch of the career of her illus- 
trious son Davyth ab Gwilym. These we derive from the 
researches and arrangement of Dr. William Owen Pughe, 
John Humphreys Parry, Dr. Jones, and Arthur James 
Johnes, the latest biographer of that poet,* who, in 1834, 
published an elegant English translation of his most select 
productions, accompanied with a memoir of his life, from 
which we transcribe the following interesting particulars : — 

*' One of the most remarkable consequences of the,con- 
quest of Wales by Edward I. wasthe depression of that 
lofty poetical spirit which had previously distinguished the 
Welsh nation. " Before that event the Cambro-British bards 
appear to have devoted their genius to the grand theme of 
national independence. Habituated to regrard the martial 
spirit of their countrymen as the only bulwark against foreign 
oppression, they naturally selected the single virtue of 
miltary prowess as the great subject of their eulogy and 
their songs. Hence it was, that with the destruction of 
their country's freedom, they appear to have lost the only 
object of their art, and the sole source of their inspiration — 
and nearly a century elapsed before we find any symptoms 
of its reviving influence. To this result other causes must 
have powerfully contributed : the jealous policy of the En- 
glish authorities, by whom the bards were justly viewed as 
the great promoters of a spirit of independence among the 
people ; the fanaticism of the mendicant friars, who appear 
to have denounced many of the refinements and amusements 
of life, as at variance with Christianity — and above all, that 
general feeling of fear and despondency, which always per- 
vades a recently subjugated nation, and destroys all sympathy 
with the joyous songs of the minstrel." 

* To give each party their respective dues, I here subjoin a remark by the 
latter editor. " For the materials of the following life of Davyth ab Gwilym 
we are entirely indebted to the ingenuity and research of Dr. Wm. Owen 
Pughe. They were first published by him, in 1789, in the form of a biogra- 
phical sketch, prefixed to the original poems. In the present arrangement of 
them I have for the most part adopted the memoir published by Mr. Hum- 
phreys Parry." 






ardidvil. 69 

"About the middle of the fourteenth century, the poetical 
genius of the Welsh began to break forth anew, but with its 
characteristics essentially changed : both in sentiment and 
style, the awen of the bards had undergone a complete 
revolution. We no longer meet in their works with those 
warlike scenes, and those songs in praise of the heroes 
of their country, which occurs so often in the poems of 
their predecessors. The Welsh minstrel was now content 
to tune his harp to themes of love and social festivity — and 
sportive allusions to objects of nature, and to the pictu- 
resque manners of that interesting period, were made to 
supply the place of lays in celebration of martial achieve- 
ments. Whatever may have been lost in fire and sublimity 
by this transition was, perhaps, more than compensated by - 
the superior polish, vivacity, and imaginativeness which 
distinguish the bards of the new school. The dawn of the 
epoch here noticed was signalized by the birth of Davy th ab 
Gwilym, on whom the appellation of the Petrarch of Wales 
has, with some degree of propriety, been bestowed. A full 
and authentic history of the life of Davy th ab Gwilym would 
be a great literary treasure ; not only would it throw much 
light upon the poetry and manners of his age, it would, no 
doubt, add also to our historical knowledge. Unhappily, how- 
ever, the only materials extant for such a work consist of a 
few traditionary anecdotes preserved in manuscript, and the 
allusions to his personal history contained in the bard's own 
poems. The exact year of his birth is involved in obscurity, 
but we possess data from which it may be conclusively esta- 
blished, that he began, and ended his days within the 14th 
century. Even the spot of his nativity has furnished food 
for controversy; and our bard may be numbered among 
the men of genius, whose birthplace has been a subject of 
patriotic rivalry; accordingly, on one hand, we find the 
island of Anglesea* strenuously laying claim to this honour, 
while on the other it appears to be satisfactorily proved that 

* " The ground on which it has been contended, that the poet was a native of 
Anglesea, is that there was a house called Bro Gynin, in that island; but it is 
plain that Bro Gynin in South Wales, must be the place of his birth ; for in many 
passages of his works he called himself a native of Bro Cadell, or the country of 
Cadell. Now this term is a poetical appellation for South Wales. Kodri Mawr, 
sovereign prince of the entire principality, having in the year 877 divided his 
dominions between his three sons, when South Wales fell to the share of Cadell." 
—A. J. Jbhnes's Life of Davyth ab Gwilym. 



70 ardedvil. 

the poet first saw the light, about the year 1340, at a place 
called Bro Gynin, in the parish of Llanbadarn-vawr, in the 
county of Cardigan. It is recorded in an old poem which has 
been handed down to us, that Taliesin, the most celebrated 
of the ancient Welsh bards, foretold the honour that awaited 
this spot, in being the birthplace of a minstrel, whose song 
would be as the sweetness of wine?* 

It has been mentioned, doubtfully, that if the union of 
Davyth's parents had been previously sanctioned by legal 
rites, it had not received the countenance of their friends. 
It is added by his biographer, that " at no distant period, 
however, a reconciliation must have been effected, as the 
embryo bard was taken in his infancy under the protection 
of his uncle, Llewelyn ab Gwilym, who is stated to have 
been a man of some parts. He accordingly became his 
nephew's tutor, and seems to have discovered in him the 
early indications of that particular talent, for which he was 
afterwards so conspicuous, and in the cultivation of which 
Llewelyn afforded his young pupil all the encouragement 
and assistance in his power. 

About the age of fifteen, Davyth returned to his paternal 
home, in Cardiganshire, where, however, he resided but a 
short time, owing, as it would appear, to the unpleasant 
bickerings that took place between him and his parents, 
in consequence of his satirical propensities, which, even at 
that early age he could not restrain. Some of his effusions 
written during this period, have been preserved, and what- 
ever ingenuity they may evince, considering the years of the 
writer, they are by no means indicative of his filial affection. 
These domestic altercations caused the young bard once 
more to be separted from his natural guardians, and we 
accordingly find him at an early age, enjoying at Gwern-y- 
gleppa, in Monmouthshire, the friendship and patronage of 
Ivor Hael, a near relative of his father, and lord of Maesaleg 
in that country. 

There we leave him for the present, and when the reader 
desires his future acquaintance, the rest of his life will be 
found in connection with the memoirs of Angharad, Deeth- 
gee, and Morvyth ofMona,as they occur in successive order 
here named, in the different portions of this work. 

* In Welsh the passage runs, " Brydydd a' i gywydd fal gwin." 



>/ 



LADIES OF THE COURT OE KING ARTHUR. 

Caerleon on the river Usk, in Monmouthshire, was the 
grand city and seat of sovereignty of the Silurian princes, 
and it was here that king Arthur held his court. " He had 
also a palace in Cornwall, probably at Lestwithiel ; another 
at Penrhyu, in Cumberland."* The northern minstrels 
frequently in their ballads state his palace to have been at 
Carlisle, which is frequently miswritten for Caerleon, a piece 
of misrepresentation founded on the local egotism of the 
writers. 

O bserving on the ancient state of the city of Caerleon 
"Warner says, " here it was that Arthur received the crown 
from the hand of Dubricius, the archbishop, on being elected 
the king of all Britain ; and here he instituted that order 
of chivalry, the round table, which makes so conspicuous a 
figure in the old romances." And Seldon, in a note to 
Drayton's Poly-Olbion, says, "at Caerleon, in Monmouth- 
shire, after his victories, a pompous celebration was made 
at Whitsuntide, whither were invited divers kings and 
princes of the neighbouring coasts ; and with them his 
queen Gwinever ( Gwenhwy var), with her ladies keeping 
these solemnities, in the several conclaves, for the British 
story makes it, according to the Trojan custom, that in 
festival solemnities both sexes should not sit together." 

" These jollities, however," says Warner,f "seem to have 
had but an unfavourable effect on the morals of the ladies. 
The fair Gwinever, Arthur's consort, and her female at- 
tendants, if not dealt unjustly by, were certainly not 
Lucretias ; and the tea-tables of ancient Caerleon must have 
buzzed with whispers somewhat discreditable to their pru- 
dence." The facetious Warner confesses that the sole source 
of his information on these delicate points was the legendary 
ballad called the "Boy; andjhe Mantle." But whatever merit 
may be attached to that truly humorous and very pictu- 
resque production, it should be borne in recollection that, 
after all, it is but an ingenious satirical romance ; and to 

* Hughes' Horse Britannicae. 

f Author of a tour entitled " A Walk through Wales" and various Tours in 
different parts of England. 



72 



LADIES OF KING ARTHUR S COURT. 



take the character of Arthur's court ladies from such a 
source would be about as liberal and just, as to look for a 
correct description of the palace inmates and drawing room 
visitors of George the Third and queen Charlotte in the 
pages of that laughter-loving wag Peter Pindar. 

Whatever censure may attach to the fame of some of the 
ladies of the court of Arthur (and what courtly \atmosphere, 
ancient or modern, was ever found taintless ?) happily there 
were some who merited and won the highest meed of popular 
applause that the most virtuous of their contemporaries 
could award. Foremost among these, both by seniority 
and her position, was the venerable princess Eigir, mother 
of the king, stated to have been in her time one of the most 
beautiful women in Britain. The chronicles are silent as 
to her further claims to celebrity ; and it is probable, from 
her age, that she was not a frequent visitor to the court of 
her royal son, dazzling as it is reputed to have been, by the 
presence of the youth, beauty, and magnificence, of the 
fair worthies who became the satellites of the scene, and 
sparkled in the atmosphere of the great hero of the age. 
Had her conduct been in any degree blameable, or at 
variance with her rank, the pen of the bardic satirists 
would no more have spared her than other less distinguished 
offenders against propriety whom they placed on the records 
of censure. 

" Enid, the daughter of earl Yniwl, is celebrated in the 
Triads, with Dyvyr Wallteuraidd, and Tegan Eurvron, as 
the three ' gwenriain,' or exalted ladies of the court of 
Arthur. She was the wife of Geraint ab Erbin. She 
became a distinguished personage in Welsh romance, and 
is the heroine of the Mabinogi of Geraint ab Erbin, the 
accomplished editor of which says of her — ' throughout the 
broad and varied region of romance it would be difficult to 
find a character of greater simplicity and truth than that of 
Enid. Conspicuous for her beauty and noble bearing, we 
are at a loss whether most to admire, the untiring patience 
with which she bore all the hardships she was destined to 
undergo, or the unshaken constancy and devoted affection 
which finally achieved the triumph she so richly deserved.' 
The bards of the middle ages have frequent allusions to 
her in their poems ; and Davyth ab Gwilym could pay no 



LADIES OF KING ARTHUR^ COURT. 73 

higher compliment to his lady-love than to call her a second 
Enid."* ~""""~~ 

Then we have what in the original Welsh is called Teir 
gohoyw riein, signifying the three sprightly ladies, or the 
witty belles, of the court of Arthur, in the persons of 
ingharad don Velen, (Angharad the brunette),f daughter 
of Rhytherch the generous ; Annan the daughter of Maig 
Mygotwas ; and Perwyr, daughter of Rhn Rhyveddmawr. 

Tegan Eurvron, before referred to, as one of the three 
exalted ladies ef the court of Arthur, was the wife of Ca- 
radoc of the brawny arm ; and bore the fame of pre- 
eminence in chastity and other amiable virtues ; thus was 
she appropriately associated in the Triad, with the highly 
extolled Enid. Among the comments on the " Boy and the 
Mantle" her claim to further notice is incidentally brought 
forward. Warton imagines that strange tale to be 
taken from an o ldjFrencb . pie ce. entitled "Le Court Mantel ;" 
" but/' adds Bishop Pej^v^from whose "Reliques of Ancient 
_English Poetry'' we transplant this sto^, "after all it is most 
y*likely that all the old stories concerning kinff Arthur are*\ 
C originally of . BritJsTT^rowth , and that what the French \ 
Land other southern nations have of this kind, were at first\ 
f expor ted from this island." The Rev. Evan Evans, editqrj " 
** of "Specimens of Welsh Poetry," confirms this opinion. He 
says the story of the " Boy and the Mantle" is taken for 
what is related in some of the old Welsh manuscripts of 
Tegan Eurvron, a lady of king Arthur's court ; she is said 
to have possessed a man tie that would not fit any inconti- 
nent woman : this, which the old writers say was reckoned 
among the curiosities of Britain, is often alluded to by 
the old Welsh bards. 

How the ladies of the court of Arthur have been depicted 
by the pen of an ancient satirist shall appear, by the inser- 
tion of the ballad so often referred to, called the " Boy and 
the Mantle." This quaint relic of the olden times, we have 
found necessary both to modernize and deprive of certain 

* William's Biography of eminent Welshmen, p. 145, wherein is quoted 
lady Guest's Mabinogion ii., 165, and Myv. Arch, ii., 73. 

t Angharad don Velen, is liter/Chy, Angharad of the yellow skin ; the Welsh, 
like the English language, being; deficient of the elegant and expressive French 
term brunette. V^/ 



LADIES OF KING ARTHUR S COURT. 

objectionable phrases on the score of delicacy, in order to 
make it presentable in the circle of our fair readers. Pity 
it were that they should be deprived of so much mirthful 
matter, when a little judicious weeding may remove the 
embargo laid by modern taste on its production. 

THE BOY AND THE MANTLE. 

In Caerleon dwelt king Arthur, a prince of passing might, 
And there maintain'd his table round beset with many a knight; 
And there he kept his Christmas with mirth and princelie cheere, 
When, lo ! a strange and cunning boy before him did appeare. 

A kirtle and a mantle this boy had him upon, 
I With brooches, rings, and owches full daintilie bedone, 
; He had a sarke of silk, too, about his middle meet, 

And thus with seeming curtesy he did king Arthur greet. 

" God speed thee brave king Arthur, thus feasting in thy bowre, 
And Gwinever thy goodlie queen, that fair and peerless flowere : " 
Then straitway from his bosome a little wand he drew, 
And with it eke a mantle of wondrous shape and hue. 



Now have thou here king Arthur, now have thou this of mee, 



And give unto thy comelie queene, all shapen as you see : 
No wife it shall become e'er, that once has been to blame, 



Then ev'ry knight in Arthur's court glanced slylie at his dame. 

Then first came lady Gwinever, the mantle she must trye ; 
This dame she was new-fangled and of a roving eye ; 
When she had tane the mantle, and with it all was cladde, 
From top to toe it shiver'd as though with sheers bestradde,* 

/ On^ while it was too long far, another while too shorte, 
| And wrinkled on the shoulders in most unseemly sorte ; 
Now green, now red it seemed, then all of sable hue, 
" Beeshrew me/' quoth king Arthur, " I think thou be 'est not true/' 

Then down she threw the mantle, no longer Would she stay, 

But storming like a fury to her chamber flung away. 

She curst the rascal weaver who had the mantle wrought, 

And doubly curst the froward imp that here the mantle brought. 

" I'd rather five in desarts beneath the greenwood tree, 

Than here, base king, among thy grooms, the sporte of them and thee. 

Sir Kay called forth his lady, and bade her to come neare, 
Yet, dame, if thou be guilty, I pray thee now forbear ; 
This lady pertiy giggling with forward step came on, 
And boldly to the little boy with fearless face is gone. 

When she had tane the mantle with purpose for to wear, 
It shrunk up to her shoulder and left her nearly bare : 
The king and ev'ry gay knight that was in Arthur's court, 
Gibed, and laugh'd, and flouted, to see that pleasant sport. 
Soon down she threw the mantle, no longer bold or gay, 
But with a face all fierce and wan to her chamber slunk away. 

* Cut in shreds. 






75 

Then forth there came an old knight a pattering o'er his creed, 
And proffer'd to the little hoy five nohles to his meed ; 
« And all the time of Christmas plum-porridge shall be thine, 
If thou wilt let my ladye within the mantle shine." 

A saint this ladye seemed, with step demure and slow, 
And gravelie to the mantle with mincing step doth goe; 
When she the same had taken, that was so fine and thin, 
It shrivell'd all about her, and shew'd her dainty skin. 
Ah ! little did her mincing, or his long prayers bestead, 
She had no more hung on her than a tassel and a thread : 
And down she threw the mantle with terror and dismay, 
And with a face of scarlet to her chamber hied away. 
Sir Caradoc calTd his lady, and bade her to come neare, 
" Come, lady, win this mantle and do me credit here ; 
Come, win this mantle, lady, for now it shall be thine 
If thou hast never done amiss since first I made thee mine." 

The lady gently blushing with modest grace came on, 
And now to try the mantle courageously is gone ; 
When she had tane the mantle, and put it on her backe, 
About the hem it seemed to wrinkle and to cracke. 

" Lye still," she cried, " mantle ! and shame me not for nought, 
I'll freely own whate'er amiss or blameful I have wrought : 
Once kiss'd I sir Caradoc beneath the greenwood tree, 
But once I kiss'd Caradoc's mouth before he married mee.*' 

When thus she had her shriven and her worst fault had told, 
The mantle strait became her right comelie as it shold ; 
Most rich and fair of colour, like gold it glitt'ring shone, 
And much the knights of Arthur's court admired her ev'ry one. 

Then towards king Arthur's table the boy he turn'd his eye, 
Where stood a boar's head garnish'd with bayes and rosemarye, 
When thrice he o'er this boar's head his little wand had drawne, 
Quoth he, " there's ne'er a cuckold's knife can carve this head of brawne." 

Then some their whittles sharpen'd on whetstone and on hone, 

Some threw them under the table and swore that they had none — 

Caradoc had a small knife of steel and iron made, 

And in an instant through the skull he thrust the shining blade. 

He thrust the shining blade in, right easily and fast, 

And ev'ry knight in Arthur's court full plenty had to taste. 

The boy brought forth a horn then, all golden was the rim. 
Saith he, " no cuckold ever can set mouth unto the brim ; 
No cuckold can this little horn lift fairly to his head, 
But he on this or that side will full quick his liquor shed." 

Some shed it on their shoulder, some shed it on their thighe, 
/ And he that could not hit his mouth was sure to hit his eye ; 
/ Thus he that was a cuckold was known to ev'ry man, 
Sir Caradoc lifted easily and won the golden can. 

jHistory informs us that Arthur had successively three 
wives of the name of Genever, or Gwenhwyvar; and that 
f2 



76 LADIES OF KING ARTHUR^ COURT. 

his last queen was seduced from him by a profligate youth, 
his near relative. The affair is thus stated by Hughes : — 
" Modred, the nephew of Arthur, being the son of his sister 
Anna, married to a chieftain in the north, acted a base and 
unworthy part. This young prince seduced the queen, and 
eloped with her into Cumberland, where he fomented dis- 
turbances ; and rather than submit himself to his uncle and 
his sovereign, he raised a civil war ; and thus the British 
princes, who ought to have" had one common interest, spent 
their strength in domestic feuds.** 

If the ladies of the court of Arthur, as Warner says, were 
not all Lucretias, most assuredly the major portion of the 
gentlemen were far from being Scipios. If the king him- 
self was unfortunate in his queen, it is probable that he set 
the first example of infidelity. It stands on record that 
Arthur had three mistresses of the names of Garwen, 
Gwyl, and Indeg, all of the rank of princesses ; and some of 
his courtiers were far from being second to their sovereign 
in their degrees of profligacy. 

Those curious historical rj^cordsjrfthe Welsh called the 
3]riads, from the classification in the number three, state 
the names and rank of several of Arthur's courtiers, whence 
it will be seen that the " Llys"* of Carleon on Usk was made 
brilliantly attractive by the presence of princes, military 
heroes, bards, divines, and other eminencies of the times. 
There were three sovereign princes, we are told, who pre- 
ferred leaving their own dominions for the felicities to be 
found in a life of pleasure at the court of Arthur. These 
were Cadair Ail Seithin Seidi; Goronw, the son of Echel ; 
and Fleudur. Cadair is also joined with Gwalchmai and 
Gadrwy, to form a Triad of the three noblemen in the court 
Arthur who were eminent for their courtesy and generous 
behaviour to strangers, and so greatly were they beloved that 
no one could refuse granting whatever wish they expressed.f 

Caradoc of the brawny arm,{ the " sir Caradoc" of the 
romances, seems to have held the post of Master of the Horse, 

* Llys is the Welsh word for " palace" or " court." 

t Myryian Archaeology, page 2, 4, 13, 19, 74, 77, 79. 

X In Welsh, Caradoc Vraich vras. This chieftain was one of the great 
grandsons of Brychan Brecheiniog, and succeeded in his turn to become like 
his ancestor the sovereign prince of Brecheiniog, or the district now called 
Breconshire. 



LADIES OF KING ARTHUR'S COURT. 77 

and is celebrated in several of the Triads for his manly bear- 
ing and warlike prowess. In one of them he is called " one 
of the three Cadvarchogion, or knights of battle of the Isle 
of Britain ; and in the following englyn or epigram, attri- 
buted to Arthur himself, he is called the pillar of Wales : — 






" These are my three cavaliers of battle, \ \ ^ *|r 

Mael the tall, and Llyr the armipotent, 
And the pillar of Wales, Caradoc." 



That is to say, they were the best of all battle horsemen ; 
and, therefore, dominion and power were given them as 
they chose. And it was their disposition to do nothing but 
what was discreet and just, to whatever country or power 
they came. Another Triad celebrates Caradoc's noble steed 
Lluagor, the "opener of the host offices." But the prin- 
cipal glory of Caradoc was in being the husband of the 
eminently lovely and virtuous Lady Tegan Eurvron, who 
is in fact the heroine of the "Boy and the Mantle," and other 
romances. He is mentioned in terms of high admiration 
by Aneurin, in his Gododin, for his exploits at the battle 
Cattraeth, where he is supposed to have fallen. In th r e* N \ 
Armorican romances he is always introduced as one of the J 
principal knights of the round table. ^/ 

The three celebrated " compeers" of the court of Arthur 
were Trystan ab March ; Rhiawd ; and Ail Cynvin Cov 
Dalldav — of whose career nothing particular is related. 
Another of the courtiers was Drem ab Dremidith, names 
literally signifying " Sight," the " son of Seer." He was 
renowned as a warrior, as well as a mystic philosopher. His 
father was somewhat of a bard, sage, or utterer of pithy 
sayings — one of which runs thus :— 



" Hast thou heard what Dremidith sang — 
An ancient watchman on the castle walls ? 
A refusal is better than a promise unperform'd. 1 



3 



Drem, the father, is celebrated in one of the tales of the 
Mabinogion for his astonishing power of vision. It is there 
said of him that " when the Gnat arose in the morning with 
the sun, he could see it from Gelliwig, in Cornwall, as far off 
as Penblaetheon in North Britain." In a composition by 
lolo Goch (the bard of Owen Glyndwr) in 1400, he is said 
to have been so sharp-sighted that he could descry a mote 



78 LADIES OF KING ARTHUR S COURT. 

in the sunbeam in the four corners of the world. Notwith- 
standing the exaggerating spirit of romance which array 
these wild statements, the author of the " Biographical 
Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen" is of opinion that Drem 
is an historical character, founding his conviction on the 
above quoted sayings of his father.* 

The three eminent naval commanders of the court of 
Arthur were Geraint ab Erbyn, Gwenwynwyn ab Nav, and 
March ab Merchion. Each of these had six score ships, and 
six score men in each ship. Edeyrn was one of the most 
valiant knights of this court, celebrated for his successful 
warfare against the Romans. Among these courtiers were 
three knights of such surpassing eloquence that they were 
known as the three silver-tongued knights. Their per- 
suasive powers were so very great that no one could refuse 
whatever they might ask. These were respectively of the 
names of Drudwas ab Tryffin, Gwalchmai ab Gwyar, and 
Elywlod ab Madoc ab Uther. 

It is pleasing to learn that among these notables of lofty 
pre-eminence that humble and low-born personal merit was 
acknowledged and duly honoured. On terms of equality 
with these courtly worthies were three young men of exceed- 
ing w r orth, but void of the advantages of illustrious birth, 
classed as the "three plebeian knights of the court of Ar- 
thur." Their nameT'wefe Eineon ab Gooron, Glethog ab 
Gwyn, and Geraint Heer.f They were so distinguished 
for their transcendant wisdom, courtesy, and other excellent 
qualities, that the humbleness of their lowly birth was 
overlooked. Not among the least, but the most profoundly 
honoured and esteemed by the loftiest of the land, the wisest 
and the best, were *« the three wise bards of the court of 

+ He refers, as the source of his information to Englynion y Clywed Myr, 
Arch, i., 24. 

t These names are written in Welsh Eineon ab Gwron, Gleddog ab Gwyn and 
Geraint Hir, but pronounced as in the text. The w in a Welsb word is always 
sounded as the English oo. It may here be mentioned, that the " ab " so 
frequently occurring in these pages, appended to Welsh proper names, is an 
abbreviation of the word » mab," signifying "son." The sharp and peculiar 
articulation of Welshmen in former days, induced the English to think they 
called it " ap ;" hence the adoption of the latter bv those who have written on 
Cambrian subjects ; especially when the object has been to hold Welsh neculia- 
nties up to ridicule. 



LADIES OF KING ARTHUR'S COURT. 79 

Arthur," in the persons of Catwg,* Taliesin, and Llywarch\ 
hen. Their principles were said to have been so excellent J 
that they never admitted any thing into their literary/ 
productions that was not dictated by wisdom and virtue. 

We shall now conclude our observations on the worthies 
of the court of Arthur, male and female, with a brief notice 
of the most curious trio of all that brilliant assemblage ; 
namely, the Holy Bachelors. There were three personages 
included in this courtly train called " the three Gwynvebydd, 
or holy bachelors of the isle of Britain," who were held in 
high esteem. For the satisfaction of our lady readers who 
may doubt the possibility of such creatures as "holy 
bachelors," we shall endeavour to prove that these were no 
fictitious beings, but veritably what they pretended to be. 
They were in fact what we may describe as religious 
knights ; ecclesiastics, who deemed it no disparagement of 
their christian profession and holy orders to don the war- 
rior's coat of mail in defence of the church and people, so 
frequently molested in that age by the pagan barbarians 
who infested the country. In modern times the knights of 
Rhodes, of the Holy Sepulchre of Malta, and of St. John 
of Jerusalem, bear a modified resemblance to the holy 
bachelors of the age of king Arthur. 

As various works on Welsh antiquities have treated on 
the history and traditions of king Arthur, it will be unne- 
cessary here to dilate further on that subject. But we 
shall indicate to those unenviable worthies of our day 
whose apathy and parsimony have united to keep them 
ignorant of the annals of their country, where such in- 
formation may be found. We refer them especially to 
Warrington's " History of Wales ;" Price's " Hanes y 
Cymry ;" Williams's " Biographical Dictionary of Eminent 
Welshmen;" Rees's "Welsh Saints;" Lady Charlotte 
Guest's " Translation of the Mabinogion," or '* Ancient 
Romances of Wales;" Rees's "Liber Landavensis ;" and 
Stephens' " Literature of the Kymry.'" 

f The name of Catwg appears misplaced in this Triad, as that eminent per-^v 
sonage is principally known as a philosophical ecclesiastic, and little as a bard. \ 
It is probable that his name was inserted by the mistake of a transcriber, / 
instead of that of the illustrious Aneurin, which would have been entirely / 
appropriate. J 



LADY WILLIAM BEAUCLERK 



OF PLAS-Y-NANT IN THE VALE OF CLEWYD. 

This excellent lady was of the highly respectable family of 
the Thelwalls, whose numerous branches have so long spread 
far and wide in the vale of Clewyd and elsewhere ; and 
wherever that name occurs, it is always accompanied with 
every honourable association. She was the only daughter 
of a dignitary of the church, renowned for his munificent 
spirit, so frequently exemplified in his day — the Rev. Dr. 
Carter Thelwall, both of Plas-y-nant, Denbighshire, and of 
Redburn in Lincolnshire. To estimate the worth and 
excellence of this lady, both while known as Miss Carter 
Thelwall, and as lady William Beauclerk, it will be neces- 
sary to describe the habits and manners of her father, who 
was her honoured model in acts of liberality. 

"The poorer and unprovided clergy of the neighbourhood 
became the especial objects of Dr. Thel wall's generosity; 
but such was the delicate manner in which he conferred his 
favours that it was well said ' his left-hand knew not what 
his right-hand did.' A third person was never present on 
these occasions, and his gifts were always made easy to the 
receiver, accompanied with expressions synonimous with, 
' my dear sir, it is only a bit of waste paper — good morning; 
to-morrow I shall expect the pleasure of your company 
to dinner.' On disengaging hands, the befriended found 
his own full of the sweetest notes, that ever banished thence 
the discords of indigence, and chased away the sounds of 
melancholy."* 

The following account by Edward Pugh, of his own 
descent from the neighbouring hills upon Plas-y-nant, 
describes that elegant spot, and exhibits the owner and 

* Cambria Depicta, p. 435. 



LADY WILLIAM BEAUCLERK. 81 

his family to great advantage. That agreeable artist and 
author has pourtrayed the scenic charms of the place in 
language as descriptive as his pencil could have drawn 
them : — 

" Still descending along the concave side of this hollow, 
and through a small farm yard, the stranger suddenly comes 
to a sylvan scene, the most quiet and rural that can be 
conceived, where peace seems ever to reign, unruffled by 
ambition — and where the solitary cottager, protected on 
all sides by towering mountains above him, feels secure from 
the asperity of the winter's storm, and enjoys happiness 
through the medium of his own industry. At the lower 
extremity of the beautiful lawn adjoining the farm yard, 
is a railed fence and a gate, that leads to a thick wood ; 
embosomed in which is the picturesque moss-covered 
cottage — 



close 



Environed with a ring of branching elms 
That overhang the thatch, itself unseen 
Peeps at the vale below, so thick beset 
With foliage of dark redundant growth." 

'* A few yards further an effect like enchantment is pro- 
duced, by the prompt appearance of the handsome gothic 
villa, Plas-y-nant, in a small verdant opening, surrounded 
by an almost impenetrable wood, of such a variety of species 
as it would be endless to enumerate. It is watered by an 
ever-babbling stream, which, impelled by every successive 
fall, rushes with a murmuring noise through the deep glen 
to the meadows below. This handsome box, with the tall 
trees about it, and the conic hill above, is a sweet picture ; 
and it may be considered as such from other points of view. 
This little elysium owes its first cultivation, and the house its 
exsistence, to Thelwall Price, Esq., of Bathavarn Park, who 
erected it about the year 1760. The estate next passed 
into the possession of Dr. Carter Thelwall, and by him the 
spot was improved, and the house repaired, and made 
convenient, annually to entertain his friends of the vale. 
They first dined at the mansion, and the ladies and gentle- 
men, as they felt inclined, walked or rode the mile to tea 
and the lightsome dance. 



LADY WILLIAM BEAUCLERK. 

" The great stillness of the woods was excellently calcu- 
lated to give effect to the soft and mellifluous sounds of the 
flute, which always upon these occasions was touched by the 
fingers of skilful performers ; the doctor himself wa» an 
excellent player upon this instrument; always happy to con- 
tribute to the amusement of his friends, he would conceal 
himself in the dark and silent recesses of the wood, and 
delight them with the melody of a Florio, the execution of 
a Nicholson, or the still more bewitching performance 
of an Humpreys." 

"When Dr. Carter Thelwall died every class of society in 
this neighbourhood felt the severity of their loss ; nor, indeed, 
was his loss less felt in other places. The Chester Infirmary 
found twice every year the sum of fifty pounds sterling 
deposited in the letter box, by an unknown hand, which 
discontinued only on the demise of this good man. 

Emulating the habits of her excellent father, as did the 
lady of this memoir especially, " doing good by stealth," and 
living unostentatiously amid the seclusions of private life, 
it will not be surprising that but little matter for forming a 
biographical memoir has come with our reach. 

Lord William Beauclerk, on his marriage with her, as the 
only daughter and heiress of Dr. Carter Thelwall, became 
the possessor of this estate. 

Edward Pugh remarks, " she was a lady of most amiable 
manners, and well taught in the school of honour and hu- 
manity ; she trod in the steps of her good father and mother; 
but died a few years after her marriage."* 

* For further notice of the family of the Thelwalls, the reader is referred to 
the Memoirs of Catherine of Berain in this work. 



*?> 



BELLA THE FORTUNETELLER. 



Among the illustrations to his " Cambria Depicta," Edward 
Pugh has introduced a likeness of this Cambrian Pythoness. 
It is a face of decided beauty, considering the age of the 
original, and thoroughly Welsh in its character ; and were 
it not that she was known to be of a sisterh ood of impostors 
might pass for a female in the middle ranks, of some respect- 
ability. Pugh's account of his visit to her dwelling at 
Denbigh is amusing. 

" Here lived, a few years ago, a fortuneteller of the name 
of Sionet* Gorn. On her death it was not likely that so 
lucrative an office should be suffered to lie dormant ; and 
it has ever since been filled up by two wonderful women ; 
of whom it is reported that they can see into futurity with 
half an eye, and that many of their remarkable predictions 
have been eventually verified. Among their devotees 1 
had the curiosity to pay a visit to the one most in repute. 
I was requested to take a seat in the passage, the lady 
being then deeply engaged in her calculations on the fate 
of a man, who was weak enough, as I understood, to come 
from Barmouth, a distance of sixty miles, to consult this 
old woman. I could plainly hear their conversation. It 
seems that this person had a complaint on him, similar to ^*s 
a consumption , which was not understood by the faculty ;A % 
of the neighbourhood; but which he fancied to have been p 
the effect of a curse, on a visit to Llanelian Well, by some '"S 
secret enemy. She managed this man's case with a gooeL****^ 
deal of art, and it may be added, with excellent advice. 
She told him that he might easily prevent any mischief to T 
himself, by frequent petitions to the Almighty ; and that 
he might rest assured that if he did not succeed, that the J 
fault was his own, in not praying with that degree of fer- ^ 

* Sionet is pronounced Shonet. 
G 



84 BELLA THE FORTUNETELLER. 

(vency which his case required. But that, if he should prove 
sincere, he would get the better of his complaint in a short 
time. After paying his fee he was dismissed, and I was ush- 
ered into the presence of this awful divineress. I was re- 
quested to take a chair opposite to her's, when she wished I 
would tell her the business I came upon, and be free and 
communicative. I took out my sketch-book ; but being 
dilatory in my reply, ' come, come,' said she, 1 1 know your 
concerns ; you are bashful, a thing very common with those 
who apply to me ; but as here are only you and I in the 
room, you need not be under the least apprehension of being 
heard." * But,' continued she, ' I know your business and 
employment : you are a merchant, and are travelling among 
your correspondents in this country; but you have been 
somewhat unhappy for some time, and (with a smile and 
a bending of the head) you are in love with a pretty lady, 
whom at present you cannot obtain ; but, be not too much 
cast down, the lady is yours.' Upon this I replied, ' that she 
had well predicted my case : that I had accordingly partly 
secured the lady already; but wished to know if she liked her, 
at the same time shewing her her own portrait, in sketch- 
ing which I had been tolerably successful. She appeared 
very angry ; and whatever use I intended to make of it, 
she said she cared very little ; she was conscious of having 
done no harm to any one. The proffered fee, however, 
appeased her resentment, and we parted very good friends. 
The money which this woman gets in this way enables her 
and her sprightly daughter to live and dress well ; and her 
respectable appearance only increases her consequence 
among the deluded, who are eager to listen to her jargon 
and nonsense." 

Edward Pugh concludes his notice of this impostor with a 
regret, since the same laws govern Wales as England, that 
our magistrates do not put down the nuisance here as in the 
latter country. But the faci^fc, though apparently unknown 
to Mr. Pugh, that fortune/tellerf are in reality more numerous 
in England, allowing for tyiedjnerence of geographical extent, 
than in Wales. The evil will probably linger among us as 
long as our girls find fun in fortunetellers, and continue to 



BELLA THE FORTUNETELLER. 85 

receive such an inferior degree of education to the boys of 
their families. While young ladies, who ought to know 
better, continue to find amusement in having their fortune 
told, they little consider that they are perpetuating an evil 
to society, that would gradually decline, and in time alto- 
gether cease, but for their foolish encouragement. While 
they are taken with the fine black eyes, dusky skin, jetty 
locks, and picturesque red cloak of the gypsey fortuneteller 
— and especially their all-absorbing prate about the young 
gentlemen who admires them so much — poor simpletons! 
they little think that the dark object before them is the 
subtle member of a race of the most vulgar and impudent of 
impostors that ever clogged the wheels of national advance- 
ment either in intellectual or industrial progress — whose 
daily bread-winning is lying, thieving, and deception. That, 
at the moment of their intercourse with her, she is sagely 
measuring their minds, insulting their understanding, pick- 
ing their pockets, and laughing in her sleeve, to think what 
shallow dupes young ladies of good families and fine modern 
education can be made. At the same time, perhaps, shrewdly 
weighing their votary's limited modicum of common sense, 
against what they well know is often possessed by the hum- 
blest of the "hard-handed daughters of labour," that ever 
trundled a mop or flourished a dish-clout.* 

* The intelligent reader will perceive according to the alphabetical arrange- 
ment of this work that the ancient and modern memoirs are here necessarily 
intermixed. At the same time it is to be noted, that by a reference to the 
different epochs in which these characters flourished, the book may be read 
according to the order of chronology. Thus the candid examiner, on consult- 
ing the biographies of succeeding periods (however placed or separated according 
to this plan), may find the attempt to render it a Biographical History of the 
Principality of Wales, not altogether a failure, even in this first attempt at 
such an arduous undertaking. 



BOADICEA, 

WIDOW OF KING PRASUTAGUS, AND QUEEN OF THE ICENI. 

The original name of this princess, in "Welsh, was Areg- 
wedd Voeddawg;* after her triumph over the Romans, her 
country, it would appear, conferred on her the honourable 
appellation of Buddig,f signifying victorious — which might 
fairly be rendered Victoria — by which arrangement our 
present gracious queen would have become the second, 
instead of the first of that name. The universal name, 
however, by which this heroine has become known to all 
posterity is Boadicea.j; 

This warrior princess, the glory of her country, and the 
terror of its foes, has been treated almost as harshly by 
modern writers as by her ancient foes. The latter by their 
atrocious usage having driven her to a revolt, which ended in 
her discomfiture and suicide ; while the former, by circu- 
lating an erroneous account of her identity, nearly assassi- 
nated her transcendant reputation as the famed martyr of 
ancient British patriotism, and vindicatress of outraged 
human nature. 

Dr. Owen Pughe, in his " Cambrian Biography," has most 
unaccountably confounded Boadicea with a contemporary 
warrior princess, the infamous Cartismandua, queen of the 
Brigantes, who betrayed the renowned Caractacus into the 
power of the Romans. This singular mistake has misled other 
authors and antiquaries, who have repeated the error in 
several instances, but we shall cite one case only. Taliesin 
"Williams, in a note to his prize translation of a Welsh ode 
on the British Druids, wherein he adopts Dr. Owen Pughe's 

* Pronounced Aregweth Voethog, the full three syllables of each word being 
sounded. 

t Pronounced Beethig. "^N^ 

X This name is variously written, Xiphiline ; Dion's Epitomizer, has it 
Bonduca ; Tacitus calls her Voadica, and Boudicia ; Camden and others Boe- 
dicia; but modern writers are now pretty well agreed in recognizing the 
standard designation of Boadicea. 



BOADICEA. 87 

opinion that Boadicea and Cartismandua are one and the 
same person, says — " whatever treachery may be imputed 
to the conduct of Boadicea towards the Romans, the clas- 
sical reader is accustomed to consider her as any thing but a 
traitress to her own country. I have, therefore, in obedience 
to the popular opinion translated * Foeddawg' by ' Cartis- 
mandua,' who is mentioned by the Roman authors as the 
betrayer of Caractacus.'' If the above lines can be in any 
measure construed into a defence of this princess, most 
assuredly they form a very lame and somewhat puzzling one. 
Never was a completer illustration of what is understood by 
the term " begging the question." He tacitly acknowledges 
the justice of the stigma on her fame, and yet, because 
" the classical reader is accustomed to consider her as anything 
but a traitress to her own country," he concludes his obser- 
vation by actually recording her as such. 

But the character of this great woman is susceptible of a 
more decided defence, and her vindication indisputable. It 
is rather strange that it did not occur to these authors, and 
others who have been misled by them, that the question has 
been absolutely set at rest by Tacitus, who describes Boa- 
dicea as queen of the Iceni, and Cartismandua as queen of 
the Brigantes. The latter is also recorded in the twenty-first 
and the Twenty-second Triad as the daughter of Avarwy, 
who is said to have traitorously invited Julius Caesar over 
to Britain, and in return for his treason, he and his adherents 
to the Roman invader received annually a large sum of gold 
and silver. Besides these lines of demarcation between the 
female sovereigns in question, Boadicea was as famous for 
her patriotism and courage in a generous cause, as Cartis- 
mandua was notorious for her selfish policy and traitorous 
duplicity. The first was most exemplary in her private 
character of wife, widow, and mother — while the latter 
proved the scandal of her age and nation for an ill-spent 
life of adulterous intercourse, and the most open and shame- 
less licentiousness. 

The best version, perhaps, of the life and times of Boa- 
dicea, derived like others principally from Tacitus, is to be 
found in a recently published work, entitled " Researches 
g 2 



88 EOADICEA. 

into the Ecclesiastical and Political State of Ancient Bri- 
tain under the Roman Emperors ;" by the Rev. Francis 
Thackeray, A.M. From this excellent work we shall com- 
mence our quotations with the destruction of the Druids 
and the conquest of Mona by the Roman governor Suetonius 
Paulinus, A.D. 59. " After conducting the civil and mili- 
tary operations of his government for two years with great 
success, Suetonius projected the conquest of Mona (now 
known as the isle of Anglesea), which, in those times, was 
the residence of the Arch Druid, and a principal resort of 
the disaffected. Britons. With great promptitude and skill 
he effected a landing on the island with his army. Every 
thing that fanaticism could effect was now put into practice 
by the Druids to stimulate the efforts of their countrymen, 
and to appal the Roman invaders. Women clad in funeral 
attire, with dishevelled hair, and with burning torches in 
their hands, were every where seen running through the 
ranks of the British army. Multitudes of Druids and 
Druidae stood in view, with uplifted hands imprecating 
curses on their enemies. These were sights and sounds to 
which the Roman soldiers were unaccustomed, and their 
firmness was for the moment shaken. But discipline resumed 
its ascendancy over their minds, and the sagacity and 
vigilance of their general assured them of victory. The 
contest was fierce but brief. A dreadful slaughter took 
place, not only of the British combatants, but also of the 
Druids. Their groves were cut down, their altars demo- 
lished, and themselves burned upon the very fires which 
they had prepared for their enemies. The fall of Druidism 
in. Britain may be dated from that day; and, although it 
lingered for centuries afterwards in different parts of the 
island, it ceased to oppose any very material obstacle to the 
progress^ of Christianity. 

" Before Suetonius had time to complete the conquest of 
Mona, he was called back into Britain by the memorable 
insurrection of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni. This people 
had been permitted by the Romans to live under the sove- 
reignty of their own native prince Prasutagus, who was 
remarkable for his wealth and possessions. Caister, his 



EOADICEA. 89 

capital (called Venta Icenorum by the Romans) was about 
three miles distant from the modern city of Norwich; where, 
according to Mr. Horsley, traces of the old walls are still 
visible. Adopting a policy then by no means unusual, and 
in the hope that his family would be allowed to remain in 
the quiet possession of a moiety of his kingdom, Prasu- 
tagus by his last will made the emperor his joint heir with 
his own two daughters. But the measure which he fondly 
hoped would be the security of his house proved the cause 
of its utter destruction. Upon the death of Prasutagus, 
the Roman soldiers, instead of evincing regard to his 
memory, or the least respect towards his widow and 
family, seemed to consider all his possessions as their own 
of right, and proceeded to commit every act of license 
and rapacity. When his widow, Boadicea, remonstrated 
against these outrages, instead of redress she experienced a 
treatment of which Nero, the reigning emperor himself, would 
scarcely have been guilty. The queen was Jbeateji with 
stripes, her daughters were violated, and her kindred re- 
duced to slavery. No tigress robbed of its young was ever 
more furious than this miserable woman. She flew at once to 
arms. She told her cruel wrongs to the neighbouring states. 
Her appeal to their feelings was successful; and one dreadful 
cry resounded from every . quarter, * destruction to the Ro- 
mans ! ' More than 200,000 of her own people, of the Tri- 
nobantes, and other tribes now ranged themselves under her 
banners. They encountered the ninth Roman legion, which 
they cut to pieces. They took Camalodunum, London, and 
Verulanium, and destroyed 80,000 Romans and their allies 
in those cities, by fire, the sword, and the gibbet. But 
Suetonius was not to be dismayed. He collected his forces, 
which, although inconsiderable in point of number, consisted 
of ten thousand of the bravest and best troops in the world. 
He chose his ground with the greatest prudence, and awaited 
unmoved the furious onset of the enemy. Nothing that 
Cyrus or Alexander ever did could shew more strongly what 
discipline can effect against numbers than the result of the 
battle which ensued. On the one side we behold a multi- 
tude of assailants, not unused to war, athletic in frame, fierce 



90 BOADICEA. 

in courage, flushed with success, and burning with a desire 
of vengeance : on the other side we see a small body of men, 
supported by the proud consciousness that they were Roman 
soldiers. Notwithstanding all their efforts the assailants 
were repelled and routed. The heart sickens at the scene of 
slaughter that followed. Men, women, and the very beasts 
which were yoked to the chariots and wagons of the Britons 
were put to the sword. Boadicea, seeing all was lost, 
upheld the character of a British heroine to the last ; she. 
disappeared suddenly, and never more was seen. The ge- 
neral conclusion being that she had poisoned herself." 

Anxious to award this princess a full measure of historical 
justice we have yielded to the temptation of giving another 
version of her career, even at the risk of some unavoidable 
repetition. The following account is from an interesting 
work by Gait, entitled " Pictures, Historical and Bio- 
graphical :'' — 

" Boadicea was the wife of Prasutagus, who in expectation 
of procuring for his family and people the protection of the 
emperor, left by will Nero, along with his own daughters, 
coheirs to his treasures, which are represented as having 
been very great ; but this precaution had quite a contrary 
effect. For no sooner was the deceased king laid in his 
grave than the imperial officers, in their master's name, 
seized on his effects. Boadicea, surprised at this unlooked 
for treatment, remonstrated with these officials; but met 
only with insult. Being a woman of noble and courageous 
spirit, she resented this insolence ; and the brutal Romans, 
not only in spite, caused her to be p uhlickly whipped, but 
her daughters to be ravished by the soldiers. 

"This enormous outrage Tnflamed the whole country with 
the spirit of revenge, and the subjects of Prasutagus flew to 
arms. Boadicea, burning with a sense of justice for her 
own wrongs, and the degradation of her daughters, headed 
the insurrection, and exhorted the Britons to free them- 
selves from slavery by putting their foreign oppressors to 
the sword. The Britons, roused by their sufferings, and 
animated by her call, fell upon the Romans in their different 
stations throughout the country, and without distinction of 



BOADICEA. 91 

age or sex, endeavoured to put them all to death. Thus 
eighty thousand were sacrificed to atone for a long career 
of insult and injustice. 

" Paulinus* the Roman general, on hearing of this avenging 
revolution, came suddenly from the isle of Mona,f where he 
was at the ^ime. destroying that last asylum of British 
independence, abolishing the worship of the Druids, and 
cutting down their sacred groves, The army under Boa- 
dicea had in the meantime increased to a hundred thousand 
men, and the sense of her wrongs was sharpened by the exul- 
tations of the revenge which she had already taken. The 
whole forces which Paulinus could muster, did not amount 
to ten thousand, and with these, on the first alarm, he 
marched directly to London. 

" He had not, however, been long there, till he learnt that 
the vast multitude assembled round the standard of Boadicea, 
did not consist alone of men, but was swelled by women and 
children, who having hastily flocked together, were not 
prepared to keep the field long. Paulinus was a bold and able 
general ; his men had full confidence in his talents, and his 
own genius was undaunted by the circumstances in which 
he was placed. He immediately, therefore, determined to 
abandon London in the first instance, knowing that if he 
was successful he could easily regain it, and if defeated it 
would still afford him a place of refuge ; and thus reinforced 
by his experience and resolution, he advanced towards the 
indignant queen. He found her with a prodigious multitude 
in battalions and squadrons, and bands of helpless old men, 
women, and children, occupying an extensive plain; and he 
drew up his army upon a narrow piece of ground with a 
forest behind, that screened him from being attacked in 
the rear. 

" When Boadicea saw the enemy advancing, she placed 
her unfortunate daughters, by her side in a chariot, and 
driving amidst the numerous bands and squadrons devoted 
to her cause' and their own, exhorted them to put forth all 
their spirit and strength. * This will not be the first time,* 

* Suetonius Paulinus. 

t Mona, the ancient name of Anglesea in North Wales. 



92 EOADICEA. 

she exclaimed, 'that the Britons have been victorious under 
the conduct of their queens. For my part I come not as 
one descended :rom royal progenitors, to fight for empire or 
spoil, but as one of the common people, to avenge the loss 
of liberty, the wrongs done to my own person, and the 
violated chastity of these my virtuous daughters. The 
Roman lust has grown to that height, that neither age nor 
sex escapes pollution ; but the gods have already begun to 
punish their crimes, and we have seen one legion driven 
before us. If you consider the motives of this war, you will 
resolve to conquer or die, for surely it is nobler to fall 
honourably in defence of our rights and liberties, than be 
exposed again to the outrages of the Romans. But let those 
who would rather live, depart and be slaves — I am resolved 
to die ! '" 

The Romans in the meantime advanced to the charge; 
but having spent their quivers, their arrows being shot short 
of the Britons, they came forward with quick and close 
steps, and burst among the multitude, who were ill prepared 
to contend with the disciplined legions — a terrible confusion 
ensued ; the women and children flying in all directions, 
marred the movements of the men. Boadicea was seen 
urging her chariot with frantic gestures in every qurrter. 
The shouts of the Romans were drowned in the screams and 
cries of the helpless that were trodden down ; upwards of 
forty thousand of the Britons were slain. The victory, 
from the moment of the close ontset, w r as decidedly with 
Paulinus, and the Roman soldiers glutted their ferocity for 
the massacre of their countrymen. But Boadicea escaped, 
and vindicated the greatness of her resolution by swallowing 
poison, rather than submit to be taken by the conqueror. 

In Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick's splendid work on British 
costumes, he has given an interesting pictorial groupe, with 
queen Boadicea placed centrally in her full historical dress ; 
her daughters in a car behind, and all the surrounding 
Britons in varied cost urns. The following is his account of 
the entire picture : — 

" We are now arrived at the period coeval with the resi- 
dence of the Romans in Britain, and in contemplating the 



BOADICEA 93 

dress of this time — the first specimen that occurs, is that of 
the queen of the Iceni. Of Boadicea, or Aregwedd Voed- 
dug, z.e., the victorious, as she was styled by her country- 
men, of which epithet, the Romans latinized a name for her ; 
ancient anthors have been studious to preserve a particular 
description. Comparing, therefore, the accounts of Strabo 
with those of Dion Cassius, and by carefully examining the 
dresses of the Celtic females, on the columns of Trajan and 
Antoninus, the basso relievos found in this country, and the 
coins of Caraucius, there is little difficulty in delineating the 
cost ume of this princes s^ Accordingly this plate represents^. 
her as a full grown handsome woman, but of a stern counte- S 
nance, with long yellow hair * flowing over her shoulders. 
She wears the pais much longer than that which was worn ^L 
by the men, hence that word is now confined to designate the /, 
petticoat. It is woven checquerwise, of many colours* •-, 
which, according to Strabo and Pliny, were purple, light 
and dark red, violet, and blue. Over this is the shorter 
garment, open on the bosom, and with short sleeves ex- 
posing the arms, termed gwn, the Gaunacain,f of Varro, 
which reached as far as the knee, also of interwoven colours* 
On her shoulders was thrown her cloak, fastened by a 
fibula, and from her neck depended a golden torque. J 
Bracelets ornamented her arms and wrists, and rings her 
fingers. This was her usual habit, says Dion ; but when 
she went to war, she bore in her hand a lance, and addressed 
her troops on a tumulus of turf. At the back are seen the 
Britons, busily employed in their warlike preparations, and 
the petoritum, or car of the queen, containing her daughters, 
one of whom is in sight. 

The heroic history of this warrior queen has ever been a 
favourite subject for the display of their respective talents 
with our painters and poets — and few themes, so national 
and patriotic, have excited so much emulation, or have been 



is not ^ 



* Whether this was flaxen hair, or discoloured by the chalky lixivium, 
mentioned. 

t Gown, or outer garment. 

t Pennant remarks that the torch, or torques, of the Gauls differed from those 
of the Britons, the latter being a collar of gold, or other metal, worn round the 
neck. Boadicea, he adds, had a large one of gold. For a learned and inter- 
esting article on the golden torques, see Pennant, vol. ii.,p. 283. 



94 BOADICEA. 

so effectively illustrated. In the Cartoons exhibited at 
Westminster Hall, in 1843, there was no less than five 
' Boadiceas,' by different artists, all of great merit, but 
varying in their degrees of excellence — and one of them 
winning a third-class premium of one hundred pounds, In 
the opinions of many, this masterly piece deserved a place 
among the first class productions, far more richly than some 
which were fortunate enough to obtain that enviable dis- 
tinction. The following list of the ' Boadiceas,' in the 
Cartoons, will show how much this subject has engrossed 
the attention of artists, and fired the ambition of our aspi- 
rants in the fine and grand art of historic painting : — No. 69, 
Boadicea relating the outrages she and her daughters had 
suffered from the Romans, by R. N. Wornum ; No. 73, 
Boadicea haranguing the Britons, by Spence ; No. 74, Boa- 
dicea animating the Britons previous to the last battle with the 
Romans under Suetonius, by E. M. "Ward ; No. 78, Boadicea 
haranguing the Iceni, by H. C. Slous — this won the hundred 
pound premium as referred to above ; No. 96, Boadicea 
attacking the Romans. There is no painter's name attached 
to this in the catalogue, but it is a production of much 
vigour, of which no artist need be ashamed.'' 

Of the poems inspired by this eventful and spirit-stirring 
piece of history, the following ode by Cowper, is incompar- 
ably the best in our language : — 

" When the British -warrior queen, 

Bleeding from the Boman rods, 
Sought, with an indignant mien, 

Counsel from her nation's gods: 

Sage, beneath the spreading oak 

Sat the Druid, hoary chief ; 
Ev'ry burning word he spoke 

Full of rage, and full of grief. 

' Princess ! if our aged eyes 

Weep upon thy matchless wrongs, 
'Tis becanse resentment ties 

All the terrors of our tongues. 

' Eome shall perish — write that word 

In the blood which she has spilt ; 
Perish, hopeless and abhorr'd, 

Deep in rain as in guilt. 



BOADICEA. 95 

- Eome, for empire far renown'd, 

Tramples on a thousand states ; 
Soon her pride shall kiss the ground— 

Hark ! the Gaul is at her gates ! 

* Other Romans shall arise 

Heedless of a Eoman's name ; 
Sounds, not arms, shall win the prize, 

Harmony the path to fame. 

' Then the progeny that springs 

From the forests of our land, 
Arm'd with thunder, clad with wings, 

Shall a wider world command. 

' Regions Csesar never knew 

Thy posterity shall sway ; 
Where his eagles never flew, 

None invincible as they !' 

Such the bard's prophetic words, 

Pregnant with celestial fire ; 
Bending, as he swept the chords 

Of his sweet, but awful lyre . 

She, with all a monarch's pride, 

Felt them in her bosom glow ; 
Eush'd to battle, fought, and died— 

Dying, hurl'd them at the foe. 

' Ruffians ! pitiless as proud ! 

Heaven awards the vengeance due ; 
Empire is on us bestow'd, 

Shame and ruin wait upon you.' " 

In the time of Caractacus and Boadicea, those mighty 
ones of Britain "while a Roman colony — the one a king great 
in defeat, the other who preferred death to slavery; the 
Ordovices inhabited North Wales, and the Silures the 
southern principality. The other considerable tribes of 
Britons were the Belgae in the w r est, the Iceni in Norfolk 
and Suffolk, and the Tribantes on the banks of the Thames ; 
while the Brigantes, a powerful people, possessed Yorkshire, 
Lancashire, Durham,Westmoreland, and Cumberland. South 
Wales included at that time the counties of Hereford, 
Radnor, Brecon, Monmouth, and Glamorgan. — Scott's Life 
of Fronlinus the Roman Conqueror of the Silures. 



Ce<? pj^y 



BRONWEN, 



D AUGHT EB_OF LLYE. . OE LEAE, KING OF BBITAIN, ATTNT GT 
CAEACTACUS, AND QUEEN OF MATHOLWCH, KING OF IBELANDY 

In the task that we have undertaken of unravelling old 
fabrics, in order to examine of what materials they have 
been originally woven, there are few intricacies more em- 
barrassing than to trace out the true genealogies of certain 
ancient families, and separate them from the fictitious 
addendas of the early romancists. The family of King 
Llyr, or Lear, are of this description ; in one account he is 
represented as the father of the three ladies who flourish in 
Shakspeare*s "Tragedy of King Lear,'' of which Cordeilla, or 
Cordelia is the heroine. In the Welsh Triads, however, 
the only paternity attributed to this ancient sovereign is 
that of a son — the celebrated Bran ab Llyr ; and a daughter 
named Bronwen,* the subject of the present memoir. 

This Bran ab Llyr, the brother of Bronwen, was the 
father of the renowned Caractacus, and accompanied him to 
Rome, where he remained with him during his captivity, 
and long after his liberation. On his submitting to become 
a hostage for his son, Caractacus returned to Britain and 
resumed his government. It was during the seven years in 
which Bran resided in this capacity at Rome, that St. Paul 
is said to have preached there, and under his ministry this 
British prince became a convert to Christianity. In the 
" Triads of the Island of Britain/' Bran abLlyr is distinctly 
mentioned as the person who first introduced Christianity 
into Britain ; and he stands recorded in the '* Genealogies 
of the Saints'' as Bran Fendigaid (Bran the blessed}, a 
distinction accorded to him in consequence of his being the 
first introducer of the " new faith" into his country. It is 
also stated there, that he brought with him to Britain two 
venerable personages to aid him in propagating Christianity; 
these were St. Cyndav and St. Hid, both of whom are 
described as " men of Israel," probably Jews, converted by 
the great apostle at Rome. 

* Bronwen signifies "white breast," from bron, breast, and wen, the fe- 
minine appellative of white. 






BRONWEN. 97 

With such a brother and nephew as Bran and Caractacus, 
added to the consideration of her royal birth, Bronwen may 
doubtless be deemed illustriously connected. Added to the 
records, few and brief, which time has spared, illustrative 
of the reality of the existence of this princess, it is grati- 
fying to trace the verification of a general tradition respect- 
ing her by an accidental discovery made by certain modern 
antiquaries. Although she is presented as the heroine of 
some of those ancient Welsh Romances called the Mabi- 
nogion, that circumstance ought not to be urged as a point 
against her to invalidate the authenticity of her historical 
character. Such an objection would be as ill-founded as to 
deny the historical existence of Queen Elizabeth because she 
flourishes also in the romance of Kenilworth. The well 
attested authenticity of her life, as proved in the following 
details, goes far towards establishing a historical found- 
ation for all those ancient tales the Mabinogion ; and the 
presumed credit due to the historical Triads for their indis- 
putable antiquity. 

There is (or rather we should say there was, till lately) 
a earn, or ancient British grave, by the side of the river Alaw 
in the island of Anglesea, bearing the name of Ynis Bron- 
wen, or Bronwen's isle, as the water had so formed itHay 
forcing a channel between the earn and the shore. General 
tradition had long given this Celtic sepulchre asjthe burial 
place of the princess Bronwen, the subject of this memoir. All 
the known particulars of her life, and the recent exhumation 
of her remains, are thus stated in Williams's " Biographical 
Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen.*' " She is recorded in 
the Triads as having suffered the infliction of a blow, which, 
from its after consequences, was called one of the three fatal 
blows of the isle of Britain. In the Mabinogi, or ' Juvenile 
Tale of Bran Vendigaid,' it is explained to us what is meant 
by the expression. Bronwen, who resided at Harlech castle, 
in Merionethshire, anciently called from her Twr Bronwen, 
(Bronwen's tower*), was sought and obtained in "marriage 
by Matholwch, king of Ireland. Being afterwards ill-treated 

* Twr Bronwen, it appears was the most ancient name of this fortress. In 
after times it was called Caer Collwyn, from Collwyn ab Tango, one of the 
fifteen tribes of North Wales, and lord of Evionj'dd, Ardudwy, and part of 
Llyn. His grandchildren flourished in the time of Griffith ab Cynan. Accord- 



98 BRONWEN. 

by him, and insulted by a blow on the face, she left the 
country to return to her paternal home ; but on landing in 
Wales we are told that she looked back upon Ireland, which 
freshening the memory of the indignity she had suffered, 
broke her heart. Bran, to avenge his sister, invaded Ire- 
land, and destroyed an immense number of the people of 
that country. The historical romance also states that a 
square grave was made for Bronwen, on the banks of the 
river Alaw, and there she was buried. In 1813 a most 
interesting discovery was made, which serves to give great 
authenticity to our Welsh documents, as, in the present 
instance, the romance has evidently been founded on his- 
torical facts. A farmer living on the banks of the river 
Alaw, in Anglesea, having occasion for some stones, sup- 
plied himself from a carnedd, which was close to the river, 
and having removed several he came to a cist of close 
flags covered over, on removing the lid he found within 
an urn of ill-baked earth, about a foot high, placed with 
its mouth downwards, full of ashes, and half- calcined 
fragments of human bones. Another circumstance may be 
added, that the very spot has always been called Ynis 
Bronwen, or the islet of Bronwen, which is a remarkable 
confirmation of the genuineness of the discovery. All the 
circumstances together seem to place the matter beyond a 
doubt that the remains were actually those of Bronwen. 
Publicity was first given to this discovery by Sir Richard 
Hoare, who received the account from his friend Fenton the 
Pembrokeshire historian. The latter in his statement says, 
' the report of this discovery soon went abroad, and came 
to the ears of the parson of the parish and another neigh- 
bouring clergyman, both fond of, and conversant with 
Welsh antiquities, who were immediately reminded of a 
passage in one of the early Welsh romances called the 
Mabinogion, the same that is quoted in Dr. Davies's ' Latin 
and Welsh Dictionary,' as well as in Kichards's under the 
^/v, j word petrual (square). 'Bedd petrual a wnaed i Fronwen 
ferch Llyr ar Ian Alaw ac yno y claddwydd hi.' A square 
\ grave was made for Bronwen the daughter of Lear, on the 

ing to Pennant he resided for some time in a square tower in the ancient 
fortress, the remains of which are very apparent ; as are those of part of the. 
old walls, which the more modem in certain places are seen to rest on» 



BRONWEN. 99 

banks of the Alaw, and there she was buried." u Happening 
to be in Anglesea soon after this discovery," says Fenton, '* I 
could not resist the temptation of paying a visit to so memo- 
rable a spot, though separated from it by a distance of 
eighteen miles. I found it, in all local respects, exactly as 
described to me by the clergyman above mentioned, and as 
characterized by the cited passage from the romance. The 
tumulus raised over the venerable deposit was of consider- 
able circuit, elegantly rounded, but low, about a dozen paces 
from the river Alaw. The urn (of which a sketch is given 
in the Cambro Briton, vol. II., p. 72) was preserved entire, 
with an exception of a small bit out of its lip, was ill-baked, 
very rude, and simple, having no other ornament than little 
pricked dots ; in height from about a foot to fourteen inches." 
In conclusion he remarks, " never was there a more inter- 
esting discovery, as it greatly serves to give authenticity to 
our ancient British documents, even though they be intro- 
duced to minister to romance, as in the present instance, 
and fixes the probable date of the interment in question 
within a few years — a desideratum we despaired of being 
ever gratified with — a circumstance beautifully alluded to in 
the close of Mr. Bowles's * Barrow Poem.' '' 

We have to add to the foregone details, from our own 
information, that the urn of Bronwen with its contents, 
became by purchase the property of the late Richard Llwyd, 
author of " Beaumaris Bay." On visiting that patriotic poet, 
in the year 1829, we were favoured by him with a sight of 
that antique relic of buried ages, which minutely agreed 
with the account given by Fenton, even to "the little 
pricked dots," and the " small bit broken out of the lip." 
Mrs. Llwyd, our host's lady, we learnt, was quite ignorant of 
the antiquarian treasure of which her husband was pos- 
sessed, nor did he ever enlighten her on that subject; as he 
felt convinced, he said, that the terror of a visit from the 
ghost of Bronwen would keep her sleepless ever after, or 
induce her to insist on the re-interment or removal of her 
remains. Before his death Mr. Llwyd presented the urn 
and its contents to the British Museum. He had previously 
stipulated with the authorities there, that a conspicuous and 
h 2 



100 BRONWEN. 

appropriate place should be assigned to this ancient British 
relic, proportionate to its interest in the appreciation of the 
antiquary, and the Welsh patriot. 

Highly as we estimate that grand national depository of 
all that is curious, interesting, and time-honoured, the 
British Museum, still we regret that Bronwen's urn was 
not restored to its original earn — where, in its native and 
only appropriate place, it would have concentrated all 
consideration, instead of causing our contemplation to be 
distracted and divided between a million of interesting 
members of the past, the wonderful, or the remote. We 
contend that, without proportionably enriching the collec- 
tions of the Museum, its removal has robbed the island of 
Anglesea, abounding as it does with glorious associations of 
historic and traditional lore, of one of its fairest objects of 
contemplative consideration. There, additionally honoured 
with a modern inscription, setting forth its claim to our 
contemplation, and a brief record of its recent discovery, it 
would have g-iven a sort of classic reputation to the banks of 
the Alaw, invited the footsteps of thousands, and created an 
interest in the bosom of every enlightened visitor of her 
rural and antique shrine. There the embrio-poet might 
draw his earliest inspiration, and the far-travelled pilgrim of 
Welsh nationality might gaze with admiration on the long- 
^enduring illustration of the union of truth and fiction in the 
I Mabinogion, and the presumed verity of the historical 
^•Triads ; the antiquity of which has been so frequently dis- 
cussed, doubted, denied, but never disproved in the scru- 
tinies of modern antiquarians. 

Notwithstanding the removal of the urn, we would es- 
pecially impress on, and most earnestly recommend to the 
attention of the inhabitants of that locality, the restoration 
of the grave of Bronwen, as near as possible to its original 
construction. Attached to the earn, the liberality of a 
patriotic public might raise a monument, inscribed with a 
history of the whole affair, both in Welsh and English. A 
prize for the best inscription, in both languages, would be 
well worthy the consideration of the patrons of our Cym- 
reigyddions and Eisteddvods, wherever held within the prin- 
cipality of Wales, or the metropolis of the British empire. 



^JA^^Wt^MIV^ 



PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG'S FE- 
MALE FAMILY, 

INCLUDING HIS MOTHEE, THEEE SUCCESSIVE WIVES, AND 
TWENTY-SIX DAUGHTEES. 

. . . . . • f 

Brychan Brecheiniog became the patriarch of a mighty / 
tribe in Wales, of far-spreading branches ai|A deeply-fixed S 
roots ; inasmuch that many of the most respectable families / 
of the present day inhabiting the region- .that originally 
owned his sway, as well as ^ome/ others' in various parts of 
the principality, date their best- authenticated pedigrees 
from him, as their fountain head. Therefore it becomes as } 
necessary as desirable, to give as clear an account of him and 
his progeny as- the evidences which time has left us will £ 
permit ; although those scanty records may occasionally be 
found interweaved with legendary fable. 

At the period preceding the birth of Brychan, a prince 
named Tewdrig ruled the district then called Garthmadrin,* 
now known as the county of Brecon, or Brecknock ; he was 
the contemporary of the Roman emperor Valentinian I. 
We now arrive at the epoch that marked the existence of 

MARCHEL, PRINCE BRYCHAn's MOTHER. 

Prince Tewdrig had an only daughter, whom he ten- 
derly loved, named Marchel, or Marcella. At the period 
when this young princess arrived at the age of womanhood 
a dangerous pestilence visited and prevailed in the country. 
Her anxious father, fearing for the life of his only child and 
heiress to his dominions, determined on removing her from 
the scene of peril, resolved to send her on a friendly visit to 
the court of Cormac Mac Eubre,f king of the Brigantes, or 

* Garthmadryn signifies " fox-hold," from the abundance of that species of 
vermin, which in the sylvan ages made its home there. 

t By some writers this prince has been called Cormac Mac Carbery. 



102 PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

Britons of Dublin.* Previously, according to an ancient 
legend in the Cottonian library ,f he addressed her in the 
following words : — " I am very uneasy least your health 
should suffer from this pestilential disorder which at present 
ravages our country." (Now Marchel had a girdle made of 
a certain skin, to which popular opinion attributed such 
virtue* that whoever girded their loins with it would be safe 
from any pestilential infection ; therefore, personally, she 
entertained no fears of an attack from the disorder; however 
she listened to her father, who continued his address to 
her.) — " Go, therefore, my daughter, to Ireland, and God 
grant that you may arrive there in safety.' ' 

According to the same legend, " Tewdrig king of Garth - 
madrin, with his captains, elders, and all his family, removed to 
Bryncoyn, near Llanmaes ; J he then appointed an honour- 
able and appropriate escort, to attend her to her destination." 

However we may be inclined to smile at the primitive 
simplicity and minuteness of the details given in this ancient 
document, with its quaint phraseology, fashioned after the 
style of the scriptures, which doubtless betrays the hand of 
a monkish scribe, these characteristics are certainly very 
curious and interesting, notwithstanding that our imagi- 
nation may occasionally be put to the utmost stretch in 
ascertaining the meaning of some portions of them. We 
are next informed that king Tewdrig appointed three hun- 
dred men and twelve honourable maids to attend his daugh- 
ter on her journey ; which, according to the following 
account was very disastrous : — " On the first night they 
reached Llansemin,§ where one hundred of her attendants 
died from the excessive rigour of the cold. On the morrow, 

* Or rather, as Theophilus Jones, the Breconshire historian, suggests, that 
part of Ireland now known as Wexford. 

t Inserted in the " History of the Town and County of Brecknock," from 
whence we quote it. 

t Llanmaes, or Llanvaes, signifies " church in the field." Surmising the 
locality of Bryncoyn, Theophilus .Tones observes, "there is a field near Llanvaes 
(the western suburbs of the town of Brecon) , being part of Newton farm, which 
is called Bryn-gwyn ; (white hill,) on this field were formerly heaps of stones 
and vestiges of buildings." As Bryn-gwyn may be a corruption of Bryn-coyn, 
possibly those crumbled buildings might mark the site of the mansion or palace 
of king Tewdrig. 

§ Perhaps Llansevin, in Llangadock, Carmarthenshire. 



PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 103 

anxious and alarmed at this melancholy event, she arose and 
proceeded on her journey, and arrived the same night at 
Madrum,* where, as at the former place, she lost one hun- 
dred men. On the following morning she arose very early, 
and the third night brought them to Porthmawr ;f from 
whence, with her surviving hundred men and maidens, she 
passed over to Ireland. Upon the news of her arrival, 
Aulach, the son of Cormac, the king of the country, met 
her with a princely train, and the cause of her coming being 
explained to him, he was so smitten with her beauty, and 
pleased with her high rank, that he fell in love with, and 
afterwards married her ; making at the same time a solemn 
vow, that if she produced him a son, he would return with 
her to Britain. J Aulach then made honourable provision 
for her twelve maidens,§ giving each of them away in mar- 
riage. In process of time Marchel conceived and brought 
forth a son, whom his father named Brychan ; and when 
Brychan had completed his second year, his parents took him 
to Britain, and they resided at Benni.|| He was then put 
under the care of an ancient man named Drychan. At four 
years of age he was brought to Garthmadrin, where Tew- 
drig, his grandfather, held his court, and in his seventh 
year Drychan said to Brychan, bring my cane to me ; and 
Drychan was dim in his latter years, and while he lay 
waking, a boar came out of the woods, and stood on the 
banks of the river Yschir,^[ and there was a stag behind 
him in the river, and there was a fish under the belly 
of the stag, which portended that Brychan should be 
happy in plenty of wealth. Likewise there was a beech, 
which stood on the banks of the said river, wherein the 
bees made honey. And Drychan said to his foster son 
Brychan, behold this tree of bees and honey, I will give thee 

* Meidrim, Carmarthenshire. 

t A haven near St. David, Pembrokeshire. 

t The date of this marriage A. D. 382. 

§ An ancient precedent and provident arrangement for the benefit of maids of 
honour on the marriage of their royal mistress ; better still, if her bachelor 
attendants had been similarly considered and provided for. 

|| Probably Abergavenny, twenty-four miles from Brecon. The Welsh 
name of that town is Venni, pronounced Vennee, 

^ Known at present as the river TJslc. 



104 PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

also full measure of gold and silver, and may the grace of 
God remain with thee here and hereafter." 

Theophilus Jones remarks, " the plain English of this 
legend, as far as it can be made out is, that this princess and 
her countrymen, to avoid a famine or some contagious 
disorder, were driven into Ireland, where she married, and 
afterwards returned with her husband to her native land, 
when the scarcity was over, or the disorder had ceased.'' * 

Aulach, in the right of Marchel his wife, succeeded Tew- 
drig as sovereign of Garthmadrin ; and on his death his son 
Brychan, surnamed Brecheiniog, became king of that country, 
and began his reign A.D. 400. Brychan changed the name 
of Garthmadrin to Brecheiniog, which, in Welsh, it retains 
to the present day; while in English the same name is 
modified into Brecon, and occasionally Brecknockshire. 

As the mixture of legendary matter with real history, in 
this memoir of Marchel, may be unwisely objected to, 
we avail ourselves of the great historian Gibbon's obser- 
vation ; " that the ancient legendaries deserve some regard, 
as they are obliged to connect their fables with the real 
history of their own times ;" and another author remarks, 
that in the grand collection of French historians, executed 
with a care and magnificence worthy of a great nation, 
the ancient lives of the saints are inserted under each 
century or division, as equal vouchers with the ancient 
historians. 

Relieved from our wanderings in the uncertain labyrinths 
of tradition by a faint perception of the lightly trodden 
paths through the wilderness of primitive history, we shall 
now endeavour to pursue the foot-prints of Brychan Bre- 
cheiniog, wherever they are traceable, from his boyhood 
onward. 

* Theophilus Jones says — " the arms given by the British herald to Marchel 
were, or, three bats, or (as they call them, rere-mice) azure-beaked and clawed 
gules : perhaps these ill-boding harbingers of darkness were adopted in com- 
memoration of the gloomy pestilence which then raged in the country ; and 
their beaks and claws were represented red, to denote the bloody characters 
which marked its track. These arms, quarterly, second, and third with those 
of Brychan, viz., sable, a fess, or, between two swords, in pale, points up and 
down, argent, pommelled and hilted of the second, are now those of the county 
of Brecon ; they are borne by the Gwynnes of Glanbran, in Carmarthenshire, 
and Garth and Buckland in Breconshire ; as well as by several other descend" 
ants of Aulach and Marchel, the parents of Brychan Brecheiniog. 



PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECSEINIOG. 105 

He is said, in his youth, to have addicted himself to martial 
exercises, in which it is probable he became a proficient, 
although we have no record that he ever distinguished 
himself in arms. Notwithstanding the exceedingly pious 
character which he acquired in after time, it is evident his 
early days were marked by very dissolute proceedings. 

It appears that about the period when Brychan was 
emerging from youth to manhood, a treaty of some descrip- 
tion, perhaps on a point of territorial integrity, took place 
between Aulach, the father of Brychan, and Bedanell, or 
Benlli-gawr king of Deyrnllwg or Powys ; when, in security 
for his faithfulness, the former gave his son as a hostage to 
the said king. 

brychan's illegitimate son cynog.* 

While residing at the court of this rival- prince of his 
father's in that perilous character, held sacred in primitive 
times, while marked by innocence and truth, but punishable 
with death, on the discovery of treachery on the part of 
either the hostage or his principal, Brychan became guilty 
of an offence, by which his life might have been forfeited to 
the violated laws. He seduced the daughter of Bedanell, 
by whom he had a male child, whom he named Cynog, in 
after times the most celebrated for sanctity of all his nume- 
rous sons. 

In the first instance it may appear strange in a person so 
renowned in aftertime as Brychan, for his patronage of 
Christianity, and every thing which assimilated with sanctity, 
that there is no evidence either of his having made, or 
offered reparation to the daughter of the king of Powys, by 
espousing her in the bands of wedlock. It is equally 
strange that in an age so rude, barbarous, vindictive, and 
self-avenging, we hear of no revengeful proceedings either 
from the parent or kindred of the injured party. However, 
both these omissions may be accounted for by the following 
contemporaneous history : — 

14 It appears that Bedanell, or Benlli-gawr, was a man of 
the most morose and brutal character, who evinced his ani- 

* Pronounced Kunnog. 



106 PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

mosity to the christians on all occasions. The late dis- 
covery of these repulsive qualities might actuate Brychan in 
avoiding a family alliance with a being so depraved, al- 
though the impetuosity of youth had led him to the com- 
mission of a flagrant act. When a Gallican council at the 
request of the British christians sent their bishops, SS. Ger- 
man and Lupus, to preach against the Palagian heresy, the 
former prelate visited the dwelling of Bedanell, and claimed 
his protection and hospitality. But being inimical either to 
the christian cause in general, or to the anti-Palagianism of 
these bishops, this ungracious potentate repulsed him harshly, 
and denied him either entertainment or shelter. In this di- 
lemma, probably at a late hour, and during the prevalence of 
severely tempestuous weather, St. German called at a poor 
cottage, inhabited, as it turned out, by one Cadell, the chief 
swineherd of Bedanell or Benlli-gawr. On relating his case 
to this humble individual, he was received both with respect 
and cordiality — attended, lodged, and entertained in a man- 
ner strikingly in contrast with the brutal incivility of the 
barbarous prince. Affected with the generosity and humble 
worth of Cadell, St. German related to him the narrative 
of man's creation, his fall through disobedience, and the 
consequent condemnation of his posterity. Then followed 
the pathetic and sublime history of a self-offered mediator, 
in the person of the sinless son of the ' creator, and withal, 
rendered clear to the capacity of his pupil, the mysteries 
and mercies of Christianity. Thus it was that Cadell the 
swineherd (hereafter to be known as Cadell the king, and 
founder of a regal dynasty), for his humanity and hos- 
pitable treatment of this illustrious stranger, was first con- 
verted to the christian faith; after which he became a 
strenuous supporter of its doctrines and people. Many 
wonderful events which could not possibly happen in an 
age of advanced civilization, in primitive times were doubt- 
less of frequent occurrence ; and a collection of such narra- 
tives, however well authenticated, would appear more like 
the fabrications of romance than the records of history, and 
go far to illustrate the truth of the modern adage — "fact is 
strange, stranger than fiction." Of such a description is 



PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 107 

the sequel to the history of Cadell, as handed down to us 
on the authority of Nennins. He informs us that on the 
same day or night on which Benlli denied to St. German 
the rites of hospitality, his city and palace, the latter sup- 
posed to contain himself and family, were destroyed by fire 
from heaven. This is perhaps a primitive mode of express- 
ing that on the stormy night in question, his dwellieg was 
consumed by lightning, and its inmates lost in the awful 
conflagration. It is added that on the destruction of Beda- 
nell, or Benlli, Cadell, the hospitable swineherd, was made 
king in his stead* 

The elevation of Cadell was doubtless owing to the pa- 
tronage of St. German, supported by the anti-Palagian 
British clergy of the day. It is worthy of especial notice, 
that Cadell not only proved highly worthy of his election, 
but his gratitude towards the sons of the church, the found- 
ers of his fortune, became hereditary in his descendants, 
The liberality of his race towards christian establishments, 
through many generations, is traceable in the grants of land 
for the erection of churches, abbeys, and other sacred edi- 
fices, and their liberal endowments at their hands. 

The occurrences here stated will serve to account for 
Brychan Brecheiniog's sins of omission towards the daugh- 
ter of the former king of Powys, who, as the mother of his 
celebrated son Cynog, claims thus much of consideration at 
the hand of the historian. The period of the above-stated 
events appears to have been that immediately previous to 
the favourable change which is said to have taken place in 
the character and conduct of Brychan, and therefore would 
appear to have wrought the impressions which brought forth 
such desirable results. A catastrophe so awful as the de- 
struction of his late friends, including the lady of his ear- 
liest love, in the manner recorded, was well calculated to 
bring forth profound contemplation, contrition for his 
offences, and amendment of life, in a mind of such generous 
aspirations as seem to have distinguished Brychan. Accord- 
ingly he became a christian, by the formalities of baptismal 
immersion at the hands of the venerable bishop Dubricius. 
We are also informed that at this time he had his son 






108 PEINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEIN10G. 

f* brought to the tents, and there baptized by the name of 
Cynog." 

On this occasion Brychan is represented to have taken 
from his own arm, and placed on that of his infant son, a 
certain bracelet, of supposed magic power, probably an heir- 
loom gift from his pagan parents, and in those simple times 
not considered repugnant to a profession of Christianity. 
An ancient legend states, "this Cynog is famous in his- 
native country, and the bracelet is still preserved as a curious 
relic." While treating of Cynog, Cressy, the Roman church 
historian states, "to him refers that which Giraldus re- 
porteth of the wreath of saint Canawg* (so he calls him), 
that the inhabitants of the county esteem to be a precious 
relic of wonderful virtue ,* insomuch, that if any one is to 
give testimony, when that wreath is placed in sight, he dare 
not commit perjury .''I 

According to the manuscript of Thomas Traman of Pant- 
llwyd, in Llansannor, Glamorganshire, quoted by Theophil us 
Jones, and other authorities, Cynog, the eldest son of Bry- 
chan, was murdered by a party of pagan Saxons upon a 
mountain called the Van, situated between BualH and Bre- 
con ; and from that circumstance the parish took and retains 
the name of Merthyr Cynog or Cunnog the martyr. In the 
Romish calendar he is recorded as a saint of great celebrity ; 
and Cressy says the fame of his sanctity was most eminent 
among the Silures. His name is celebrated among our 
English martyrology, on the 11th of February, where he 
nourished "in all virtues'' about the year of Christ 492. 

* This ancient relic we find occasionally called a bracelet, a wreath, and a 
collar. Giraldus Cambrensis describes it thus : — " I must not be silent concern- 
ing a collar chain, which they call St. Canauc's ; for it is most like to gold in 
weight, nature, and colour. It is in four pieces, wrought round, joined together 
artificially, and cl-ef ted as it were in the middle with a dog's head, the teeth 
standing outward. It bears the marks of some severe blows, as if made with 
an iron hammer : for a certain man, as it is said, endeavouring to break the 
collar for the sake of the gold, experienced the divine vengeance, was deprived 
of his eye-sight, and lingered the remainder of his days in darkness." Bonedd 
y Saint, Rees's Welsh Saints, Jones's Brecknockshire, Hoare's Giraldus, Wil- 
liams's Cambrian Biography. 

t Theophilus Jones observes on these statements—" when this author wrote 
we do not know, but unfortunately we do know that the relic has been long, I 
fear irrecoverably lost ; as, without asserting that mankind are more wicked 
than they were in the year 492, I may venture to affirm that, in proportion as 
population has increased, and oaths have multiplied, it would be ten thousand 
times more useful in 1805 than it was in the days of Cynog." 



PRINCE RRYCHAN BRECHEINIOGU 109 

brychan's THREE WIVES AND PROGENY. 

Brychan was thrice married. Theophilus Jones quarrels 
with the names of his three successive partners, and de- 
scribes them truly as most unintelligible and uncouth, even 
to a Welshman, whose powers of swallowing consonants are 
supposed to be equal to an ostrich in devouring and 
digesting iron. The antiquary George Owen Harry calls 
them Eurbrost, Ambrost, and Pharwystry ; other au- 
thors will have them to be Eurbrawst, Rhybrawst, and 
Peresgri ; by no means an improvement upon the former, 
nor indeed can any thing be said in favour of their eupho- 
nious sound, in either version. 

Brychan became as famous for his progeny as king Priam, 
as by those three wives, and another woman or two, he had 
no less than fifty children, twenty-four of them were 
sons, and twenty- six daughters. The number would be 
still more extensive if we can suppose that some of 
the names rejected, and substituted by others, were in 
reality what should be considered as additions to the list. 
But even while limiting the number to fifty, professor Rees 
and other late writers suggest the probability that some of 
his grandchildren are included in the account. What grounds 
these authors have for their doubts we have never learnt, 
therefore must confess we have met with no reason for 
shaking our faith in the number of children originally 
attributed to Brychan ; especially as we have modern in- 
stances of certain vigorous old Welshmen of the north who 
gave the world a similar patriarchal issue.* 

* This refers in the first instance to William ab Howell ah Ionverth, the patri- 
arch of Tregaian, mentioned by Pennant, who died in the year J 580. at the age 
of one hundred and five. He had by his first w ife twe nty-tw o children, by his 
second ten, by his third four, and by his two conyi^ii>feg'fe eTen, in all &rty- 
three . His eldest son was eighty-three at the time of fh"e~father's deathTand 
the youngest son only two years and-a-half old ; so that between his first 
child and last, there was an lnYervai ' of eighty-two years ; nor did there less 
than three hundred people descend from this stock. To the above may be 
added the following instance of ^0ff pv itiY anr) n^^rnity of a numerous race, 
which, in several points, appears strangely coincidental -—Writing of the valley 
of Festeiniog, Merionethshire, in the year 1 756, lord Lyttleton states — " not 
long ago there died in that neighbourhood HHFnonest Welsh farmer who was 
one hundred and five years of age. By his first_wife he had thirty children ; 
by his second four ^ and by Ms third and two concubines sevenT His youngest 
son was eighty-one years younger than his eldest, and eight hundred persons 
descended from bis body attended his funeral." Thus it appears he exceeded 



$V-W 



110 PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHElNtOG. 

In tracing the character of Brychan Brecheiniog, it would 
appear that after his conversion to Christianity and his re- 
ception of baptism, that he afterwards relapsed into profli- 
gacy. The offences with which his life has been charged 
are incontinence and faithlessness to the marriage vow ; 
as, besides his first son Cynog, no less than three of his 
children were illegitimate. It is certain, however, that a 
thorough reformation marked the after course of his life. 
Notwithstanding the fault of character here referred to, it 
is evident that Brychan was a man who reverenced virtue, 
and was free from the general vices of his time. This is 
proved by the care which he took of having his children 
educated and imbued in christian principles. The tender 
solicitude and laudable zeal which he evinced on this occa- 
sion were not without their fruit, as both his children and 
grandchildren, male and female, became famous for religious 
learning and practical piety — which enabled them to instruct, 
in the christian faith and practice, the converts which they 
and others similarly disposed made from barbarian pagan- 
ism. The most eminent theologian in Britain at this time 
was Dubricius (afterwards known as the celebrated arch- 
bishop of Caerleon), whose collegiate establishment at 
Gwenddwr,* on the banks of the Wye, drew forth the pious 
from all quarters, and acquired great celebrity from his 
ministry and teaching — as was strikingly proved by the 
capable scholars which issued from this seminary to doc- 
trinate and civilize the land in after times. It is said that 
the first disciples or scholars of Dubricius were some of the 
children and grandchildren of Brychan. It is conjectured 
by Hughesf that Brychan himself was also one of the con- 
verts of this early father of the British church, "as the 
christian religion had not been introduced into Ireland at 

Brychan Brecheiniog in the number of his children by one. Another instance 
appears in the case of William Parry. LL.D., who was executed, in 1534, for 
plotting with the Papists against Queen Elizabeth. While waiting for the final 
blow that was to launch him into eternity, he boasted among other claims to 
honourable notice, that Ins father had thirty children by two wives, and died at 
the age of one hundred and eight. 

* Gwenddwr is now hnown only as a parish, and vill age of fi rf . c-Tmnshire . The 
village stands on high ground, about a mile^'rom another village beneath it 
called Erwood, on the road between the towns of Builth and Hay, seven 
miles from the former. 

t John Hughes author of Horce Britannkce, the best history of the early 
British church and primitive British Christianity extant. 



PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINTOG. Ill 

the period when he eame over to Britain." According to 
this account Dean Swift's celebrated vaunt on the early 
civilization of Ireland, 

" This happy island Pallas called her own, 
When haughty Britain was an isle unknown," 

applies only to the profane knowledge which existed pre- 
vious to the introduction of Christianity, the priority of 
which is thence ceded to Britain. 

Hughes suggests of Brychan, "he might have been a 
profligate character in his youth, and was perhaps converted 
(for the second time) in his old age by Dubricius." This 
conjecture receives some countenance from the inferior de- 
gree of pious celebrity attached to his name compared to 
what fell to the lot of some of his children, as champions of 
Christianity, who are chronicled as martyrs and patron 
saints. Brychan, however, stands recorded in the annals of 
his country as an illustrious patriarch of a far-extending 
tribe, being as before observed, the father of fifty children ; 
twenty-four sons and twenty- six daughters. His family is 
styled in the Triads u one of the three holy families of the 
isle of Britain," with those of Bran ab Llyr and Cunedda 
Wledig, in consequence of *' having brought up his children 
in learning and the liberal arts, that they might be able to 
show their faith in Christ to the nation of the Cymry, wher- 
ever they were without faith." Hughes remarks, " learning 
was evidently a rare acquirement in those days when the 
children of princes esteemed it so great an ornament : and 
it shows the docility of many great men in that rugged age, 
that they were induced to take so decided a part in sup- 
porting the interests of Christianity." 

According to Bonedd y Saint the names of Brychan's 
twenty-four sons were, Cynog, Cledwyn, Dingad, Arthen, 
Cyvlevyr, Rhain, Dyvnan, Gerwyn, Cadog, Mathairn, Pas- 
gen, Nefai, Pabiali, Llechan, Cynbryd, Cynvran, Hychan, 
Dyvrig, Cynin, Dogvan, Rhawin, Rhun, Cledog, and Caian. 
The names^ of the daughters will be found in the next divi- 
sion of this memoir. Nearly all these embraced a religious 
life, and were the founders of numerous churches in Wales 
as may be seen on consulting Rees's " Welsh Saints." 
i2 



H2 PRINCE BRTCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

BRTCHAN BRECHEINIOg's DAUGHTERS. 

The principal genealogists, chroniclers, antiquaries, and 
historians who have supplied lists of the children of Brychan 
are, Llewelyn Offeiriad,* Edward Llwyd, Hugh Thoraas,f 
George Owen Harry, j John Jones of Devynnock, Leland, 
and Carte. Scarcely two of these perfectly agree as to the 
correctness of the names either of the sons or daughters of 
this British patriarch. According to Theophilus Jones 
the names of thirty-four, copied from a Welsh manuscript 
of Llewelyn Offeiriad by Edward Llwyd, were sent by 
him to Hugh Thomas. Thomas informed Llwyd, as 
appears by a letter of his, still preserved amongp his papers 
in the British Museum, that he had also a list copied from 
a manuscript of John Jones of Devynnock. George Owen 
Harry gives another ; Leland another, from the life of St. 
Nectanus ; and the My vyrian Archaeology another ; all 
differing as to some of their names. 

The children of Brychan, as before observed, were fifty in 
number ; twenty-four sons and twenty-six daughters. The 
names of the former have been given in our notice of their 
father; according to Bonedd y Saint the names of the 
daughters were — first Gwladys, second Arianwen, third 
Tangwystl, fourth Mechel, fifth Nevyn, sixth Gwawr, seventh 
Gwrgon, eighth Eleri, ninth Lleian, tenth Nevydd, eleventh 
Rheingar, twelfth Golenddydd, thirteenth Gwenddydd, four- 
teenth Tydian, fifteenth EKned, sixteenth Ceindrych, seven- 
teenth Gwen, eighteenth Cenedlon, nineteenth Cymorth, 
twentieth Clydai, twenty-first Dwynwen, twenty- second 
Ceinwen, twenty-third Envail, twenty-fourth Tydvil, twen- 
ty-fifth Hawystyl, and twenty- sixth Tybian. 

The other names allowed to Brychan* s daughters by some 
parties, and rejected by others, are second Wrgan, third 
Marchel or Marcella, fourth Gwtlith, fifth Drwynwen, sixth 

* Llewelyn Offeiriad (Llewelyn the priest), was the second son of Griffith ab 
Owain ab Bledri ab Owain Brogyntyu, a chieftain of Powys. His works are 
still preserved at Jesus' College Oxford ; the MS. bears "the title of Llvyr 
Llewelyn Offeiriad, " the book of Llewelyn the priest." He was a learned 
herald, bard, and antiquary. 

t Hugh Thomas was a deputy herald to Sir Henry St. George, Garter prin- 
cipal King at Arms in the year 1703. 

+ George Owen Harry was rector of Whitchurch, Cemeys, Pembrokeshire, 
and flourished as a herald in the reign of James I. 



PRINCE BRTCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 113 

Cyngar, seventh Rhynhyder, eighth Melari or Eleri, tenth 
Gwtvil, eleventh Gwenvrewi, twelfth Eitech, sixteenth 
Gwenllian, seventeenth Felii, eighteenth Tibie, nineteenth 
Emmrhaith, twentieth Rhymeiden, twenty-first Cledy, 
twenty-third Almedha the martyr. 

Several of those particularized in both the above series 
of names are noticed elsewhere in this work, and the subjects 
of brief biographical notices. But the following are so little 
known to history, that we may dismiss them at once with the 
slight records appended which the lenient wing of Time 
has been too merciful to expunge. 

Arianwen, or Wrgen, each said to be the second daughter of 
Brychan, we are informed, was married to Iorworth Hir- 
vlawdd (Edward the tall and active), a chieftain of Powys. 
She became the mother of Caenog-mawr, to whom was 
dedicated the church of Clog-canog in Denbigshire. Ior- 
worth was descended from Beli-mawr, who was also the 
ancestor of Elystan Glodrydd, prince of Ferregs, and of 
Iestyn ab Gwrgant, lord of Glamorgan. Marchel or Mar- 
cell a, was married to Hirvardrwch, or white bushy-Ion gbeard, 
a personage of whom we have no genealogical account. 
Nevyn became the wife of Gynvarch Oer, and the mother of 
the celebrated Urien Rheged. Gwtlith is said do have lived 
in obscurity at Llysronwy, in Glamorganshire. Of Cyngar 
and Rhynhyder we have no account. Eleri or Melari, was 
the mother of Dewi, or St. David ; according to Cressy, 
who says that Melari was another name for Non or Nona or 
Nonnitta. She is said to have been one of the most distin- 
guished female saints of the ancient British church. There 
is a church dedicated to her in Gwyr, and another at Cy dwell 
(Kidwelly), Carmarthenshire. Nevydd became the wife of 
a chieftain named Tudwall Bevyr, and had a church dedi- 
cated to her at a place called Llech Gelyddon, in Scotland, 
Of Eitech we know nothing further than that she resided at 
Towyn in Merionethshire. Goleuddydd was married to a 
chieftain named Tutwawl Bybyr, or Tutwawl the valiant, a 
prince, according to Llwyd, of some territory in Scotland. 
Llian was married to Gavran, and became the mother of a 
son stigmatized in the annals of his country as Aeddan 
Vradawg, or the traitor ; the only instance in this illus- 



114 PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

trious and exemplary family of an unworthy descendant." 
H Aeddan became a prince of the northern Britons in the 
latter part of the fifth century. He deserted the cause of 
his countrymen, and traitorously fought with the Saxons 
against Rhydderch Hael, king of the Strathclyde Britons. 
For this enormous crime he was handed down to posterity 
branded with infamy, in company with Gwrgi and Medrod, 
who together form a Triad as the three arrant traitors of 
the isle of Britain, who were the cause of the Britons losing 
the sovereignty of the island."* Of Felii, Tybie, Emrhaith, 
and Rhyneiden, we have no account or tradition, except that 
Tybie was buried in Carmarthenshire at a place called 
from her Llanybie, or Llandebie, and Rhyneiden at Cyd- 
weli (Kidwelly), in the same county. Cledy lived at 
Emlyn, in Carmarthenshire, where a church was said to have 
been dedicated to her called Cleyden, or Clyday. 

Doubtless most of these names will appear as coarse, unin- 
telligible, and unpronounceable to an English reader as so 
many German or Russian designations ; but as the supposed 
repulsiveness or non-appreciation can proceed only from igno- 
rance of the meaning of them, we shall endeavour to show 
that what is unintelligible, is not necessarily unreasonable : 
and that much inward beauty attaches to what apparently 
•-possess ungainly exteriors. 
/ A Welshman cannot fail to notice in these Celtic proper 
/ names an elegance and sense of refinement, full of poetic 
/ beauty, little to have been expected in so early an epoch as 
the fifth or sixth century. The first daughter's name is 
Gwladys, pronounced Gladdis; punning Englishmen will 
sometimes have it glad -eyes, thus furnishing an agreeable 
etymon of their own. Inoffensive at least to the most fas- 
tidiously musical Italian ear. The Latin version of it is 
Claudia. Gwawr (Latinized Julia), is the Welsh of the 
rosy-finger Aurora, or the dawn of day. Arianwen, signi- 
fies silver-white, and carries its own eulogy. Gwron, is 
heroic ; in what sense it could be an appropriate name for an 
infant girl is not easily conceivable. Perhaps she sported 

* See Williams's Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen, p. 11* 
Triads 46, 52, Myvyrian Archaeology, p. 11, 65. 



PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 115 

smiles instead of cries at the baptismal test of cold water ; and X, 
for her baby courage won her honorary designation. Goleu- 
ddydd, is the light of day ; and Gwenddydd, clear or fair 
day — one of the most rare, far-spreading, and universal of 
the good things with which the creator has blest our moist 
and cloudy clime.* Gwen,is a smile ; or if the name should 
be Gwen, it simply signifies white, or fair; and Ceinwen, 
means comely -fair, or fairly beautiful. Some names we 
pass over, of meanings too obscure for comment ; but Tang- 
lwstl, the third daughter of Brychan, we have reserved for 
especial notice, with which we shall close our observations 
on this fair and exemplary sisterhood. Truly this name 
Tanglwstl, with its tough-looking consonants and somewhat 
etrange sound, is alarming enough to the eye, ear, and tongue 
of the Saxon — although Tanglwstl is not very difficult to 
utter. But when he is informed that it carries the meaning 
of " a pledge of peace," or " hostage of tranquility/' as the j 
name of a little girl, surely it may be allowed to pass j 
uncensured, especially if we may be allowed to suppose j 
that this pledge of peace came very seasonably to calm some I 
family feuds between the lady Brychan and her lord, origi- I 
nating in certain discoveries connected with his notorious 
gallivantings ; four of his children having other mothers j 
than either of the three ladies of inharmonious names whom 
our famed worthy had espoused. 

THE TIMES OF BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

The public events which agitated these early times were 
neither weak nor despicable in relation to the race affected 
by them, but such as were calculated to draw forth the 
energies and self-preserving instincts of a people that, 
though but recently emerged from rank barbarism, were ever 
on the move (certainly not yet amounting to a march) to- 
wards civilization. These all- engrossing subjects of human 
thought and action appear to have been two-fold: how to, 
repel the incursions of their enemies, and how to think, on 
that perplexing question in the church, whether the inno- 

* Gwenddydd, is literally \white-dayh implying the white silvery clouds 
contrasting with the blue ethere&iJiue'Suininer's day. 



116 PBINCE BRTCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

vating opinions of Palagius were true or false, and to choose 
their parties accordingly. 

The public enemies of the Britons in these times "were 
certain large bands of freebooters, or armed barbarians, who 
prowled through the country in great strength, and terrified 
every well-disposed and settled community. These ruthless 
savages, it appears, would at times conceal themselves in the 
depths of solitary ravines, and in the wild sylvan forests, 
nearest to the settlements which they had resolved to attack, 
and in the night issue forth like wolves on the slumbering 
fold, or fiends in human flesh, on their mission of plunder 
and murder. They also, according to the description of 
country which they traversed, would at times wend along 
the tops and sides of hills and mountains, from the most 
northern to the extreme southern ends of the island, on these 
marauding expeditions. From such " vantage ground'* they 
were enabled to look down into every plain, vale, or dingle, 
where human habitations appeared, and attracted their cupi- 
dity on their far-extending march of villany from sea to sea, 
Thence bursting downwards in swarming numbers on seclu- 
ded neighbourhoods, it is probable that accumulation of pro- 
perty by robbery was their main and perhaps only original 
object, and that murder and utter annihilation of their 
opponents was the consequence of resistance. It is certain 
they were often successfully opposed, mastered, and subjected 
to as little mercy as they were in the habit of dealing to 
others, except the few who were fortunate enough to save 
themselves by flight from the scene of slaughter ; as we shall 
have occasion to show in the course of these memoirs. 

It would be paying these, loathsome barbarians too high a 
compliment to imagine (as it has often been stated) that 
their animosity was more pointedly directed towards those 
who held the doctrines of Christianity than other natives of 
the island, on account of hatred of doctrines or opinions 
opposed to their own. It were a rueful and sorry jest to 
speculate on the probable opinions held by professed robbers 
and murderers by occupation. Living in clustered commu- 
nities of dwellings,. accumulating cattle, tilling the land, 
erecting churches, religious houses, and what have been 



PEINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 117 

denominated colleges, were peculiarities that distinguished 
the early British christians ; and these being also signs of the 
possession of property, became allurements to their invaders. 
As they were the most industrious in the island, it follows 
that they became the most affluent : doubtless, the only^cause 
for being selected as peculiar marks for despoilment and 
destruction. Three of the children of Brychan are recorded 
to have become the victims of these ferocious people ; 
Cynog, his eldest son; Almedha, his twenty-third, and 
Tydvil his twenty- fourth daughter. The particulars of the 
murder, or martyrdom (as it has been called, from their 
occupying at the time certain offices in the church) of the 
two former, are not upon record. But the dreadful massacre 
of Tydvil and her travelling party is related in her memoir, 
where the death of the venerable Brychan himself, with 
several members of his family, has also met the fullest 
statement. 

These murderers of many an exemplary and peaceful 
population have usually and very correctly been described as 
pagan " Gwyddel," or Irish, Picts, and Saxons ; and it has 
been objected by other writers that the latter people had not 
yet become inhabitants of this island : concluding, therefore, 
that the account which included them in these dark trans- 
actions must consequently be inaccurate. It is known, how- 
ever, and among others we have the authority of the learned 
archbishop Usher for the statement, that long before the 
Saxons appeared in the characters of national invaders and 
conquerors, they had ft^quen ted Britian as p irates; and 
settling for a time on the coasts, occasionally issued from 
thence into the interior on these chivalrous expeditions. 

The incursions of these miscreants called forth the ener- 
gies and conduct of the young and old among the Britons to 
oppose and repel them — in which gallant undertakings they 
were greatly assisted by the Roman legions, who, doubtless, 
admired and honoured the patriotism of the brave islanders, 
over whom it was their glory to preside, for their vigorous 
manliness in wars so justifiable in the eye of virtue and even 
piety. The author of " Horae Britannic ae'' quotes Ammianus 
Marcellinus as his authority to prove that the Romans found 



118 PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

it necessary in latter times to institute a new officer for the 
express purpose of watching the motions and marching his 
forces against these barbarians, "a comes litteris Saxonici 
per Britannias." 

The secondary subject of public agitation, as before obser- 
ved, was that most striking feature in these times, called in 
church history the Palagian Heresy, It originated in the 
promulgation of certain new scriptural opinions put forth by 
a British ecclesiastic of the most bold and decisive character, 
however erroneous he may have been in his conclusions. 

The founder of this new sect of religionists, whose heresies 
are said to have disturbed the peace of the church for the 
space of two hundred years, was a Briton named Morgan , 
evidently a man of strong intellect, and it appears full of 
the ambition of becoming the founder of a_new se ct, in the 
christian churc h, and a reformer of ancient errors. With 
the view of spreading his doctrines far beyond the limits of 
his native island, he paused his n am e to be translat ed into 
Greek, whence he became generally known on the continent 
of Europe by the designation of Palagins, and his doctrines 
stigmatized by his opponents as the Palagian heresy. 

Without entering into the question of the truths or false- 
hoods, the degree of verity or amount of error in this man's 
innovating opinions, we consider the mere circumstance of 
his starting a new theory in so early an age, a proud and 
elevating evidence of intellectual originality and reasoning 
powers in an, ancient Briton, of the fifth century : ought we 
not, therefore, to be proud that such a man as Morgan or 
Palagius had his being amongst us ? The amount of merit 
that should be conceded to him, is that he was theJSxst who 
taught the people the art of thinking for themselves on theo- 
logical matters, and incited them to examine and test the 
precepts of their teachers ; thus laying the foundation of the 
right of private judgment, in opposition to the assumptions 
of dogmatic and dominant religious professors. It has been 
well remarked by Carlyle, that all dominant religionists of 
later times have echoed each other in vivifying Palagius as 
an arch heretic, a piece of dogmatic insolence, worthy only 
of the persecuting intolerance of the Roman priesthood 



PRINCE BRTCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 119 

That his opinions spread abroad, and were embraced 
(whether for good or evil) by thousands and tens of thou- 
sands, affords a proof that the reasoning powers of our 
islanders were awakened, and that they were no longer 
content to yield a blind obedience amounting to a surrender 
of their mental functions to any one set of men. That they 
had become, in a certain degree, a thinking people, and men- 
tally energetic in entertaining the question which agitated 
society, is very manifest from the earnestness and vehement 
ardour with which each party supported or opposed their 
respective views in the Palagian controversy, now raging 
throughout the most populated portions of the island. The 
opponents of Palagian ism, among the most strenuous of whom 
were Brychan Brecheiniog and his family, became greatly 
alarmed at the continual growth of converts to the new opi- 
nions, and in their zeal made application to the ruling powers 
of the christian church in Gaul for assistance to oppose the 
evil. The orthodox party in the Gallic church, who were 
also bearded with Palagian opposition on their own ground, 
gave immediate attention to their request, and sent over the 
two eminent bishops, St. German and Lupus. 

It is due to the memory of the primitive ecclesiastics of 
Britain in these times to show with what a spirit of libe- 
rality they met this innovation or heresy of Palagius. They 
did not pretend to evince their love of the God of truth and 
mercy by burning alive or butchering with the sword the 
author of these new opinions, or even by burning or destroying 
his writings; but most wisely they put to work the machine of 
human intellect instead of that of the merciless Inquisition. 
It is to the permanent honour, the everlasting glory of these 
early British christians, that no other force or coercive aid 
was resorted to, or thought of by either party, than those of the 
reasoning and persuasive powers of man, to elicit and support 
what they respectively considered the truth. The voice of the 
preacher, not the brand of the warrior, was the only approved 
weapon in this war of opinion. It was reserved for the refine- 
ment of later ages to bring forth fire and sword as the elements 
of conviction in the settlement of a controversy on points of 
disagreement in the christian church. They were no 



120 PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

« Fire-eyed disputants, who deemed their swords 
On points of faith more eloquent than words,"* 

Appealing to the reasoning capacities of their hearers, they 
not merely denied, but disproved the assumptions and con- 
clusions of their adversary, to the satisfaction and conviction 
of thousands. This was noble, this was honourable and 
generous dealing; none were compelled to repudiate the 
opinions they had perhaps too hastily adopted; but on a 
thorough conviction of their unsoundness, by the arguments 
of the patient and discerning preacher, their abjuration 
became a voluntary concession. 

Church history informs us that by the persuasive eloquence 
and perseverance of the two continental bishops, aided by 
the zeal of the British ecclesiastics, the Palagian heresy 
was at length suppressed. But that in the course of time 
it was revived, and embraced by the succeeding followers of 
Palagius with amazing energy, and supported by the most 
tenacious zeal of that party. That notwithstanding the 
argumentative opposition which it met with, it continued to 
disturb the tranquility of the church till towards the con- 
clusion of the next age ; when it was finally put down and 
extinguished for ever by the transcendant eloquence of David 
the Monk, known to posterity as St. David, the patron saint 
of the ancient Britons. 

We shall conclude this memoir of the family and times 
of Brychan Brecheiniog with the following detail of one of 
the most memorable and characteristic of occurrences in 
that early era of British history : — There is a place in Flint- 
shire, north Wales, that bears the name of Maes Garmon,f 
or St. German's field. It is situated about a mile west 
of the town of Mold, on the side of the river Alyn, 
and gained that significant appellation from an eventful 
occurrence of these times called the "Halleluiah Vic- 
tory." The particulars are thus related by Pennant. 
" Visited Maes Garmon, a spot that still retains the name 
of the saintly commander in the celebrated battle the Vic- 
toria Alleluiatica, fought in 420 between the Britons, headed 
by the bishops Germanus and Lupus, and a crowd of pagan 

* Moore's Veiled Prophet of Korhassan. 

t Gannon is the Welsh of St. German, or Germanus. 






PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

Picts and Saxons, who were carrying desolation through the 
country. This event happened in Easter week, when the 
christian army, wet with their recent baptism in the river 
Alyn, were led by their holy commanders against the pagan 
host. Germanus instructed them to attend to the word he 
gave, and repeat it. Accordingly, he pronounced that of 
Alleluia. His soldiers caught and repeated the sacred sound 
with such ecstatic force that, the hills re-echoing with the 
cry, struck terror into the enemy who fled on all sides ; num- 
bers perished by the sword, and numbers in the adjacent river.'* 
Pennan adds, "such is the relation given by Constantius of 
Lyons, who wrote the life of Germanus within thirty-two 
years after the death of the saint." 

The traditions of the country, though somewhat wilder, 
differ slightly from Pennant's version of the affair of Maes 
Garmon ; and, we may add, are more graphic and descriptive 
of the occurrence. When we visited that spot in the year 
1829, the following was the relation which we received 
from a person well versed in the traditions of the neigh- 
bourhood : — While the bishops, St. German and Lupus, were 
busily engaged in the ceremony of baptizing an immense 
multitude in the river Alyn, they were suddenly surprised 
by a host of barbarians, who made their appearance in the 
gap, or mountain pass, immediately above them, and with 
their usual murderous purpose, making a rapid descent 
upon them. The Britons being mostly unarmed, little 
expecting such intruders, might soon have become their 
victims, but for the singular presence of mind evinced by 
the venerable St. German, whose piety and great capacity 
in averting peril in its wildest hour, became strikingly 
apparent. He briefly addressed them, and checked their 
alarms, which would have led to their confusion and certain 
destruction, by an assurance of divine protection, provided 
they followed his instructions. He desired them to fall 
upon their knees in prayer, and remain so immovably, and 
in utter silence, till he gave a certain word on the approach 
of the foe, which they were to repeat, and rush upon them 
at the same instant. Accordingly when the barbarians, 
sword in hand, and thirsting for blood, attained ttie river's 
side, instead of dashing over the stx^ajgaajid commencing 



122 PRINCE BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

the work of death, astonished at the solemn silence and inert 
appearance of the kneeling multitndeT^theyj^ade a pause 
and gazed in wonderment at a scene so new and mystical to 
them. While this feeling possessed the invaders St. Ger- 
man exclaimed aloud "Halleluiah!" — the Britons all at 
once springing on their feet, in one grand chorus shouted 
out the sacred word till the neighbouring hills re-echoed 
with their multitudinous voices ; the armed portion of the 
party rushed on the enemy at the same instanty' Astounded 
and bewildered, the barbarians commenced/ a rapid and 
disorderly retreat, scampering up the hill and through the 
Iwlch, or mountain gap, by which they -so lately entered for 
the purposes of destruction and conquest. Many fell in the 
pursuit, both in the river and on the hill's side, the victims 
of a panic of very simple foundation. The catastrophe, 
according to the spirit of the times, was attributed by the 
British christians to the immediate interference of the deity 
in their favour ; as, according to their conception, nothing 
short of a miracle could have preserved an unprepared 
assemblage against the powerful opposition of such an 
armed multitude. 

It is pleasant to record the public spirit and good taste 
of a "Welsh gentleman, Nehemiah Griffith, Esq., of Rhual, in 
this neighbourhood, which induced him to erect a column, 
with an appropriate inscription in Latin, commemorative of 
this event. It runs as follows : — 

Ad Annum 

ccccxx. 

Saxones Pictiq. Bellum adversus 

Briton.es junctis viribus susceperunt 

In hac regione, hodieq. Maesgarmon 

Appellata : cum in praslium descenditur, 

Apostolicis Britonum Germane- 

Et Lupo, Christus militabat in castris : 

Alleluia tertio' repetitum exclamabant; 

Hostile agmen terrore prosternitur ; 

Triumphant 

Hostibus fusis sine sanguine ; 

Palma fide non viribus obtenta 

M.P. 

In Yictorise Alleluiaticse memoriam. 

N.G. 

MDCCXXXV*. 



1$ 



CATHERINE, 

WIFE OF THE RENOWNED CHIEFTAIN IEVAN AB ROBERT OF 
CESELGYVARCH. 

The lady upon whose memoirs we are now engaged lived 
in a perilous and stirring age of violence and bloodshed, 
when energy of character, and the virtues of courage, and 
quickness of intellect, in meeting the danger of the hour, 
with corresponding vigour or stratagem, were most in 
request in the female as well as the male character. Conse- 
quently a jury of Fine Ladies of our times are scarcely 
competent to decide upon her claims to applause, or to give 
a just verdict of reprehension. Neither can the gentlemen 
of our times he fair judges of what constituted excellence of 
character in the females of those days, measuring their 
merits by the standard of their own fair contemporaries. 
But let the contemplative eye glance on the Greek and 
Turkish warfare of our times — and let a French or English 
lady of fashion put herself on a parallel with the wife of a 
Grecian chief whose camp is surprised in the night, and 
unless mightily self-flattered, she may soon discover her 
helplessness and inutility in such a sphere of perilous tumult. 
A discovery so humiliating, perhaps, may produce toleration 
for such a being as the lady under present consideration. 
In England this period was distinguished by the wars of 
th e Roses b etween the rival houses of York and Lancaster ; 
while in Wales (though many became partizans of either 
of those houses) they had a bye-play of murderous violence 
of their own to enact, which was marked by great depravity 
of manners, and an utter estrangement to good morals. 

Catherine was of the ancient house of Bryn y Voel in 
Evioneth, North Wales. She was married to one of the 
bravest men of his country and time ; and what may have 
flattered her woman's vanity the more, Ievan ab Robert* 

* Iefan, or Ievan, has been frequently misprinted Jevan, from the inat- 
tention of authors in correcting their proof sheets. That name is now univer- 
sally modernized into Evan. 

K 2 



124 CATHERINE. 

was a very handsome man, indeed as it should seem, the 
most handsome of his contemporaries. Sir John Wynn of 
Gwydir says of him, " he was a goodly man of personage, 
of great stature (as may appeare by the Welsh songes made 
unto him), and most valiant with all. Besides the tur- 
moyles abroad, he sustayned deadly feud (as the northern 
man termeth) at home, in his doore* a war more dangerous 
than the other." 

Although very near relatives, there was a bitter feud 
between the husbands of Catherine, Ievan ab Robert, and 
his near kinsman, Howel ab Rhys. The intermarriages in 
these families seem as extraordinary as the rivalry and 
hatred between them ; the wife of Ievan ab Robert being a 
sister to Howel ab Rhys, and the first wife of the latter a 
sister to Ievan ab Robert. The second wife of Howel ab 
Rhys was the daughter of Tudor ab Griffith ; and as in all 
family feuds the ladies generally contrive to fulfil their 
parts to admiration, this woman certainly was no exception 
to that rule. Doctor Johnson has left it on record that he 
loved a good hater — in which case here is a woman after 
his own heart, who hated and hunted her enemies to the 
death, and became an ever-burning but unconsumable fire- 
brand for the destruction of peace both in her own family 
and her neighbour's. Sir John Wynnf describes her as 
" Tudor ab Griffith ab Eineon's daughter, of Ardydwy, a 
courageous stirring woman, who never gave over to make 
debate betweene her husband and his next neighbour and 
brother-in-law my ancestor. Many bickerings passed 
betweene them, either making as many friends as he could, 
and many men were slayne, but commonly the losse fell on 
Howel ab Rhys his side. This woman caused the parson of 
Llanvrothen to be murthered because he had fostered to 
my ancestor ;| but God soe wrought that the murtherers, 

* A mode of expression tliat seems to explain itself. 

t In our numerous quotations from this very picturesque old author, we 
purposely avoid either modernizing the language or altering the old English 
spelling— which would be about as barbarous a proceeding as dressing up the 
statue of an ancient hero in the trim^attire of a modish dandy, or French dancing 
master. 

% Sir John takes many opportunities of boasting his descent from Ievan ab 
Kobert. 



CATHERINE. 125 

being three bretheren, were all slayne afterwards by my 
ancestor, in revenge of the parson's unworthie death." Re- 
ferring to the cause of this " mortal hatred" between the 
two brothers-in-law, Sir John Wynn makes it appear that it 
originated in the preference manifested by Ievan ab Robert 
for his nephew John ab Meredith, who (as he expresses it) 
l> affected him best," as he was also his fbsterbrother, 
although nearly allied to the other — "which was taken 
soe heinously by Howel ab Rhys, that he converted the 
summe of his rancour upon his brother-in-law and next 
neighbour." It would seem also, that on the death of 
Howel ab Rhys's first wife (sister to Ievan ab Robert), 
that all ties between them were finally broken, and they 
shunned each other's company, while the malignant nature 
of his second wife poured oil upon their fire of discord. As 
the whole of ^this account is derived from that quaint piece 
of antiquity, the " Historie of the Gwydir Family, by Sir 
John Wynn," the first baronet of that name, we shall give 
as much as possible of these details in the venerable author's 
own pjaraseology. 

" The beginning of the quarrell and unkindness between 
Ievan ab Robert and Howel ab Rhys grew in this sort. 
Ievan ab Robert, after his sister's death, upon some mislike 
left (abandoned) the company of Howel ab Rhys, and 
accompanied John ab Meredith his nephew and his chil- 
dren, who where at continuall hate with Howel ab Rhys. 
The fashion was, in those days, that the gentlemen and 
their retainers met commonly every day to shoote matches 
and masteries :* there was noe gentleman of worth in the 
country but had a wine cellar of his owne, which wine was 
solde to his profit. Thither came his friends to meete him, 
and there spente the day in shooting, wrestling, throwing 
the sledge, and other acts of activitie ; and drinking (very 
moderately withall) not according to the healthing-f and 
gluttonous manner of our dayes. 

* To shoot at' a target with bows and arrows, one party aiming at mastery 
in skill as a good shot over the other. 

f Drinking healths. Drinking and gluttony being the vices of wealthy civi- 
lized times, would have ill accorded with the activity requisite for self-preser- 
vation in the lawless period here described. 



126 CATHERINE. 

" Howel ab Rhys did draw a draught* upon Ievan ab 
Robert, and sent a brother of his, to lodge over nighte at 
Keselgyvarch, to understand which way Ievan ab Robert 
meante to go next daye, who was determined to shoote a 
matche with John ab Meredith's children, at Llanvihangel y 
Pennant, f not farre from John ab Meredith's house. This 
being understood, the spie, Howel ab Rhys' s brother, slips 
away in the night, to his brother, and lets him know where 
he should lay for him. j Now had Howel ab Rhys provided 
a butcher for the purpose, that should have murthered him ; 
for he had directions from Howel to keepe himself free, and 
not to undertake any of the company untill he saw them in a 
medley, and every man fighting. Then was this chardge 
[given to him], to come behind the tallest man in the com- 
pany (for otherwise he knew him not, being a stranger), and 
to knocke him downe ; for Howel ab Rhys sayd — ' thou 
shalt soone discerne him from the rest by his stature, and 
he will make way before him. There is aJbsterbrother of 
his, one Robin ab Inko, a little fellow/ that usefh to watch 
him behinde ; take heede of him; /for be the/encountre 
never soe hot, his eye is ever on his fosterbrother.' "§ 

Catherine, the subject of our memoir, in t}te next passage 
makes her appearance ; and a most viYid^picture our ancient 
historian draws of this affectionate and energetic matron, in 
contrast with her sullen, dogged, determinedly murderous 
brother. Although she was uninformed of the intended 
murder, yet, having just parted with her husband, and on 
her return homeward meeting her brother, his deadly enemy, 



* Draw a draught is a phrase frequently used by this author, and imports 
arranging a stratagem ; or as some of our old dramatists have phrased a similar 
idea, " hatched a plot." 

f Llanvihangel y Pennant, St. Michael the archangel of the brook-head. 

% Way-lay, to murder him. 

, '' § This a powerful illustration of the affection between foster-brethren ; and 
the love of the foster-parents towards the child whom they had nursed, was, if 
possible, greater still. To understand this long obsolete fostering system, it is 
to be observed, the custom was for an infant of the " great house" of the 
locality to be sent to a neighbouring farmer's, or some such person,- to be nursed, 
or fostered, where it was brought up among their own children, and the little 
stranger became the pet of the whole family. The love between these foster- 
parents and their children towards the fostered child, thence took its deepest 
root ; and was through life a binding tie of the dearest regard between the rich 
and poor of olden times in Wales, that is scarcely conceivable in our days. 



CATHERINE. 127 

riding with his emissaries at full speed after him and his 
company, as if in pursuit, her womanly loving nature intui- 
tively discovered his peril ; and in her terrible apprehensions 
she was stirred to the most heart-touching expostulations, 
which she made to avert the dreaded rencontre. 

*' Ievan ab Robert, accordinge as he was appointed, went 
that morning with his ordinary company towards Llanvi- 
hangel to meete John ab Meredith. You are to understand 
that in those dayes, and in that wilde worlde, every man 
stoode upon his guarde, and went not abroad but in sorte and 
soe armed, as if he went to the field to encountre with his 
enemies. Howel ab Rhys's sister, being Ievan ab Robert's 
wife, went a mile, or thereabout, with her husband and the 
company, talking with them, and soe parted with them; 
and in her way homewards, she met her brotherjm horse- 
backe, with a grete companie of people armed, riding after 
her husbande as fast as they coulde. On this she ciied out 
upon her brother, and desired him, for the love of God, not 
to harme her husbande, who meant him no harme; and 
withall steps to his horse, meaning to have caught him by 
the bridle, which he seeing, turned his horse about. She 
then c aught the horse by the taile, hanging upon him soe 
long, and crying upon her brother, that in the end he drew 
out his short sword, and strucke at her arme. "Which she 
perceiving, wasiaineto lett slippe her hold, and running 
before him to a narrow passage, whereby he must passe 
through a brooke where there was a footbridge neare the 
forde : she then steppes to the footbridge and takes away the 
canllaw* or handstay of the bridge, and with the same letts 
flie at her brother ; and if he had not avoyded the blow, 
she had strucke him downe from his horse. — Furor arma 
ministrat.'' 

s. The diabolical murder, cunningly as it was concerted, 
utterly failed of execution ; but brought destruction on the 
wretched instrument employed to carry it into effect through 
the watchful affection of the fosterbrother of the intended 
victim. But we shall give the details in the words of our 
old Welsh historian. 

* The top rail of the side fence of a rustic bridge. 



128 CATHERINE* 

" Howel ab Rhys and his companie, withine a mile ovef- 
tooke levari ab Robert and his followers, who turned heade 
upon him, though greatlie overmatched. The bickering 
grew verie hott, and manie were knocked downe of either 
side. In the ende, when thatt shoulde be performed which 
they came for, the murthering butcher haveing not strucke 
one stroake all day, but watching opportunity, and finding 
the companie more scattered than at first from Ievan ab 
Robert, thrust himselfe among Ievan ab Robert's people 
behiude, and, makeing a blow at him, was prevented by 
Robin ab Tnko, his fosterbrother, and knocked downe ; 
God bringing upon his head the destruction that he meant 
for another : which Howel ab Rhys perceiving, cryed to his 
people, ' let us awaie and begone ; I had given chardge that 
Robin ab Inko should have been better looked unto :' and 
soe that bickering brake with the hurte of manie, and the 
deathe of that one man." 

Another instance of the savage depravity of these times is 
given in the next passage of Sir John Wynnes history, 
detailing the murder of the parson of Llanvrothen by the 
machinations of the ferocious wife of Howel ab Rhys, 
which was referred to in another part of this memoir. 

" It fortuned anon after, that the parson of Llanvrothen* 
tooke a childe of Ievan ab Robert's to foster, which sore 
grieved Howel ab Rbys's wife, her husbande haveing then 
more lande in that parish than Ievan ab Robert ; in revenge 
whereof she plotted the death of the said parson in this 
manner. She sente a woman to aske lodgeing of the parson, 
who used not to deny any,~\ The woman being in bed, after 
midnight, began to strike and to rave ; whereupon the 
parson, thinking that she had been distracted, awakeing out 

* Llanvrothen is a small village in Merionethshire, situated near the Traeth- 
mawr sands. 

t The diabolical nature of the woman may be conceived from this circum- 
stance ; the benevolent trait in the character of this hospitable Welsh parson 
became the snare that ensured his destruction. '« He used not to deny any ;" a 
simple but ^ffectingly comprehensive expression, that forcibly reminds us of 
Goldsmith's beau ideal of a country parson, 

" His house was known to all the vagrant train, 
He chid their wanderings but relieved their pain." 

Deserted Village. 



CATHERINE. 129 

of his sleep, and wondering at so suddaine a crie in the 
night, made towards her, and his household also ; then she 
vowed with great vehemence, that he soughte to take undue 
freedome with her, and soe gott out of doores, threatening 
revenge to the parson. This woman had her brethren, 
three notable rogues, of a vile crew, fit for any mischief, 
being followers of Howel ab Rhys. In a morning these 
brethren watched the parson, as he went to look to his cattle, 
in a place in that parish called Gogo yr Llechwin, being 
tiow a tenement of mine, and there murthered him. Two 
of them fled to Chirkeland, in Denbighshire, and some to 
the Trevors, who were friends or of a kinne to Howel ab 
Rhys or his wife. It was the manner in those dayes, that 
the murthereronelv, he that gave the death-wound, should 
flye, which was called in Welsh Llawrudd, which is, a red 
handg, because he h ad blouded his hand e : the accessaries 
and abbettors to the murtherers were never harkened (sought) 
after.'' 

The following account of the apprehension and punish- 
ment of the " Llawnid d." or red-ha nds, is strikingly inter- 
esting. It describes a state of things once common to all 
the countries of Europe, and to Italy especially, in later 
times, when the powerful outlaw was in reality the despotic 
sovereign of his own locality. Supported by his own bands, 
the " captaine of the country,'' as Sir John Wynn calls the 
Welsh freebooter, he raised his contributions when and 
where he pleased, defended his most guilty friends against 
the law of the land, and the wrath of rival outlaws, and 
made war to the death on those whose possessions he 
covetted, or whose persons he disliked. 

" In those dayes, in Chirkeland and Oswaldstreland,* two 
sects, or kindred (clans), contended for the soveraignty of 
the countrie, and were at contintiall strife one with another : 
the Kyffins and the Trevors. They had their alliance, par- 
tisans, and friends in all the countreys round thereabouts, to 
whome, as the manner of the time was, they sente such of 
their followers as committed murther or manslaughter, 

* Now called Oswestry ; it adjoins Chirkeland, where the Trevors continue 
still to be a very considerable family. 



1 30 CATHERINE. 

which were safely kept as very precious jewellg; and they 
received the like from their friendes. These kinde of people 
were stowed in the day time in chambers in theire houses, 
and in the night they went to the next wine house that 
belonged to the gentleman, or to his tenants houses, not 
farre off, to make merry, or to wench. Meredith ab Howel 
ab Moris, in those dayes chiefe and leader of the sect of the 
Kyffins, was a kinne to levan ab Robert, and in league with 
him, to whome he sente to desire him to draw a draught to 
catch those murtherers ; who sente him worde that he 
shoulde come privately into Chirkelande onely accompanied 
with but six, and he made noe doubt to deliver the mur- 
therers into his handes. As levan ab Robert was in his 
way going thither, passing by Ty yn y Rhos,* being a wine 
house, standing in Pendryn Deydraeth, Howel ab Rhys's 
wife being in the house said to the people that were with 
her, ' yonder goeth levan ab Robert,' Hwyr y dial ev ei 
dadwaeth, which is as much as to say ' that he would not in 
haste be revenged of the wrong done to his foster.' Being 
come to Chirkelande he abode there manie dayes in secret 
and unseen, sleeping in the day, and watching all night. In 
the ende, with the helpe of his friendes, he caught the two 
murtherers, whome he had no sooner in hand but the crie 
did rise, the Trevors to their friendes , and the Kyffins to their 
leaders. To the latter of these cries Meredith ab Howel 
ab Moris resorted, who told levan ab Robert that it was 
impossible for him to carry them out of the country to any 
place to have judiciall proceedings against them, by reason 
that the faction of the Trevors woulde lay the way and nar- 
row passages of the countrie, and if they were brought to 
Chirke castle gate to receive the triall of the countrie lawes, 
it was lawefull for the offender's friendes, whosoever they 
were, to bring five poundes for everie man for a fine to the 
lord, and to acquit them, soe it were nott in cases of 
treason. A damnable custome used in those dayes, in the 
lordship's marches, which was used alsoe in Mawddwy, untill 
the new ordinance of Wales, made in the seven and twen- 
tieth yeare of Henery VIII. Hereupon levan ab Robert 

* Ty yn y Rhos, t. e., house on the common. 



CATHERINE. 131 

commanded one of his men to strike off their heads, which 
the fellow doing faintlie, the offender tolde him that if he had 
his necke under his sworde, he would make it take better 
edge than he did : so resolute were they in those dayes and 
in contempt of death — whereupon Ievan ab Robert, in a rage 
stepping to them, strucke off their heads." Thus two out 
of the three murderers met their fate ; and as we shall soon 
see, the third did not escape. 

We have more, in the next passage, on the "goodlie 
personage" of Ievan ab Robert, the husband of our Cathe- 
rine ; he must have been almost gigantic in stature, and a 
fair match for his contemporary Sir Richard Herbert, the 
celebrated Yorkist commander, had it been their lot ever to 
meet in battle. The perseverance with which he followed 
up this adventure, sleeping in caves, or wherever he could 
conceal himself by day, and searching out the murderers by 
night, cost no trifling bodily fatigue and suffering, it would 
appear by the latter part of this passage. 

" Davydd Llwyd ab Griffith Vychan, grandchild to Ievan 
ab Robert, in his youth- waited upon Hugh, son to Mr. 
Robert ab Rhys, at Cambridge, elected Abbot of Conway 
by his father's procurement, in his minoritie. He being at 
Plas Iolon,* at the house of Mr. Robert ab Rhys, an old 
woman that dwelt there tolde him that she had seene his 
grandfather Ievan ab Robert at that house, both in goeing 
and comeing from his voyage into Chirkeland, and that he 
was the tallest and goodliest man that ever she had seene^— \ 
for sitting at the fire upon t he spur ,t the hinder parte of his -^ 
heade was to be seene over the spur, which she never saw to *N 
any other man. She also said, that in his returne from 
Chirkeland she saw Lowry, daughter of Howe], Rhys ab N 
Meredith's wife, his kinswoman, wash his eyes with white 
wine, being bloudshot by long watching/' 

The destruction of the third and last of the murderers of 
the parson of Llanvrothen is next narrated ; which event 
made Ievan ab Robert's expedition into Chirkeland, upon the 

* Plas Iolyn is in Denbighshire, not far from Gelar and Voelas : it belongs to 
the Middletons of Chirke castle. 

t Pronounced spear; the high-backed oaken settle once common to the bet- 
ter sort of farm-houses. — ' 



132 CATHERINE. 

whole, a very complete adventure, unique in its details, and 
unsurpassed for its ultimate poetic justice, by the most 
elaborate of our tales of fiction. 

" Ievan ab Robert, in his returne from Chirkeland, riding 
home to his house by Gail Lg Morva-h ir,* by moonshine 
(the tide in Traeth-niawr giveing him noe sooner passage, 
talking with his men carelessly, and out of danger as he 
imagined), suddainlie lighted an arrowe shot amongst them 
from the hill side, which was then full of wood. On this 
they made a stande, and shot wholly, all seven, towards 
the place from whence the other arrowe came, with one 
of which arrowes of theirs, shot soe at random, they killed 
him that shot at them — being the third brother of the 
murtherers." 

This triumphant achievement of Ievan ab Robert's, in the 
destruction of these pestilent wretches, as miglit be expected, 
excited the highest resentment in the family of his brother- 
in-law. The history states that " Howel ab Rhys, and es- 
peciallie his wife, boyling in revenge, drew another draught 
against Ievan ab Robert in this manner. Ievan ab Robert's 
mother was of the house of Even-mel-goed, in the county of 
Cardigan, and sister to Rhytherch ab Ievan LIo3 r d, then, and 
yet, the greatest family in that countie." ****** 
[Here an omission of a few lines in copying the original 
MS. leaves us at a loss to discover what Ievan ab Robert's 
maternal family had to do with what follows. However, a 
little consideration makes the matter clear enough.] It 
would appear that these Cardiganshire relatives of his had 
sent to him, for his safe keeping and protection, certain par- 
tisans and followers of theirs who had been implicated in 
some of the dreadful feuds of the day, and sought conceal- 
ment from justice. Thus hiding away in the premises of 
Ievan ab Robert, they stood as known outlaws and mur- 
derers, precisely on the same footing with the emissaries of 
Howel ab Rhys, whom his brother-in-law had caused to be 
executed at Chirkeland. But here we return to our old 
historian again. 

» Gallt or Allt, is a wooded precipice, or hill side, and Morva-hir the long 
marsh ; the whole implying the hill-side wood by the long marsh. 



CATHERINE. 133 

'* It hath before been mentioned to have been customary 
in Chirkeland and other parts of Wales, for the jLlawr,udds 
[red-hands], to resorte to the most powerfull of th e gentry, 
where they were kepte v ery_choicely . Howel ab Rhys, 
understanding that Ievan ab Robert and his people had 
occasione to goe to Carnarvon assiz es, thought it a fit 
time [a fair opportunTtyj by force to enter his house, and 
apprehend all those [under his protection], and to bring 
them to Carnarvon to be hanged ; for there were none of 
them but stoode outlawed of murfher. To this end, to 
strengthen himselfe in his purpose, he sent for David ab 
Jenkin, his cousin-german, then a fam£u§mitlawe in the 
rocke of Carreg y walch, with his crew and followers to 
assist him, and suddainlie came in a morning to the hall of 
Ievan ab Robert's house, where they were in the outhouses 
about, and stowed in upper chambers, in the lower end of 
the hall, and none to be seen." 

Some details of this hreak-of-day attack on the house of 
Ievan ab Robert differ a little in the relation in the different 
editions of the " History of the Gwyder Family." In one, 
it is stated that the watcher on the Garreg ("the highest 
rock in the vicinity of the house) announced the approach 
of the hostile party ; and in the next instant they rushed 
forward, broke down the court gate, and commenced batter- 
ing the outer door of the mansion. It happened most fortun- 
ately for the family that this especial morning was devoted 
by the careful mistress of the habitation, thejady Catherine, 
for that useful piece of domestic housewifery mead-brewing. 
Unlike our lie-a-bed modern mistresses, in theTFIghTgood 
spirit of the olden day, the wife of Ievan ab Robert was 
personally superintending the distilling process of that 
important convivial beverage, and might be seen this event- 
ful morning, passing to and fro, giving orders to her maids, 
among the steaming vats and seething cauldrons. Sud- 
denly the ominous warning of the watcher struck upon her 
ear, and in the consequent agitation dissipated all further 
thoughts of her present occupation in the thrilling and all- 
absorbing consideration how the house was to be defended. 
In the next instant the tumultuous rush, shouts, and batter- 



134 CATHERINE. 

ing of the assailants came nearer and louder. The destruc- 
tion of the court gate by the sledge hammers and axes of the 
foe, as might be expected, was scarcely an instant's impedi- 
ment to their destructive march, and their loud shouting and 
thundering at the outer door of the mansion immediately 
followed. The lady of Ievan ab Robert on the first notice 
of danger had sent one of the girls to r ouse the sleep ing men 
in the different parts of jfchfc house, few as they were in num- 
ber, many having accompanied her husband to Carnarvon ; 
while another hearty lSss was put to ring the alarm bell with 
her whole strength of arm and body. In'the meantime, 
with the coolness and intrepidity of a practised leader, she 
gave her instructions to the rest of the fair ministers of the 
jmea d brew ery, how they were to turn warriors on the occa- 
sion, and with such_weapons as never before or since has 
been used for attack or defence. In an instant every female 
followed their mistress, each bearing a^^n_jyi,ojLthaJjQiling 
mead-wort, ready to salute the first intruder. As the inner 
door flew to splinters under the ponderous blows of the 
assailants, and the foremost of the enemy crossed the 
threshold, while wondering to see none but women to 
oppose them, each had dashed in his face a vessel full of the 
scalding fluid prepared for his reception. Those behind, 
ignoranT oF the impediment to their intrusive ingress, 
pushed forward T and received similar compliments the mo- 
ment they exhibited their faces, land quickly dropped on 
their prostrate companions who, on the floor, were wjrjjLhmg 
and roaring with excessive torture. The maidens who had 
retrea ted in good order, under the instructions of their un- 
daunted mistress, immediately returned to the charge with 
pans refilled with the steaming mead, and discharged them 
as before with similar effect in the faces of the assailants, 
which for a while prevented their advances m.aujiyards into 
the interior of the dwelling. Happily at this time the sleep- 
ing men having been roused from their heavy slumbers, now 
came armed to the attack, and relieved the fair combatants 
from their toil and peril. The ever-wakeful genius of the 
lady Catherine, fatigued as she was, did not limit her exer- 
tions to what we have related — for as we learn from Sir John 



CATHERINE. 1 35 

Wynn's history, that the alarm was given out of doors, far 
and near, which brought assistance to the defenders of the 
house; all the men within being engaged, the information 
could be conveyed only through the agency of the females, 
one of whom, it is probable, was dispatched by her mistress 
for the purpose through the rear of the mansion . But the 
rest of the narrative of this memorable attack and defence of 
Ievan ab Robert's house we give in the words of our old 
historian. 

"These p eople of Ievan ab Robert 's that were in the 
hajj [those first up] raysed a crie, and betooke themselves to 
their weapons ; whereupon the o utlawes aw aked, and alsoe 
betooke themselves to their weapons, and bestirred them- 
selves handsomely. The hpjisewas_^ajsalted with all force, 
and pierced in divers places, but was well defended by those 
that were within : for having made diverse breaches, they 
durst not enter ; a few resolute men being able to make a 
breach good against manie. Upon this the crie of the coun- 
try did rise, and Ievan ab Robert's tenants and friendes as- 
sembled in greate numbers (whereof Robert ab Inco was 
captaine), who fought with the besiegers, and in the ende 
with their arrowes did drive them from one side of the house, 
who continually moved round and assembled the other side. 
After they Ijad continued all that da y, and all the following 
pjght^ in that manner, the next morning, seeing they could 
prevayle little to enter the house, they came to a parley with 
Robin ab Inco, who advised them to begone in time : * for, 
said he, as soon as the water of Traeth-mawr will give 
leave,* Ievan Krach, my master's kinsman, will be here with 
his Ardydwy men, and then you shall be all slayne.' This 
Ievan Krach was a man of greate accounte in those dayes in 
Ardydwy,f an( * dwelt at Gaily- lydan, in the parish of 
Maen-turog. Whereupon they gave over their enterprize, 
and returned to Bron-y-voel, to Howel ab Rhys his house ; 
when the outlawe David ab Jenkin advised his cosen Howel 
to take his brother-in-law Ievan ab Robert for his friende 
and neighbour. * For, said he, I will not come with thee to 

• Meaning as soon as the tide would permit him to cross. 
t Ardyd wy is a Hundre d in the N. W. of Merionethshire. 
l2 ~~~ 



1 36 CATHERINE. 

invade this man's house when he is at home, seeing I finde 
such hot resistance in his absence.' " In this last allusion, 
it is probable that he more particularly referred to the 
'scalding mead by which his first advances were so signally 
defeated. 

The affectionate meeting of Ievan ab Robert and his 
heroic wife on his return from Carnarvon assizes may be 
easily conceived. She had not only been the means of de- 
fending his household, but utterly baffled the aim of his ad- 
versary to wound his pride, and obtained for her husband 
one more triumph over his implacable enemy, although that 
enemy was her own brother. 

It is by no means difficult to conceive the state of animo- 
sity between two such females as the wives of Howel ab 
Rhys and Ievan ab Robert, for very different was the cha- 
racter of Catherine to that of her brother's mischief-brewing 
wife. If the former may be allowed to stand as the 
"Boadicea" of private life of those days, the latter has her 
full claim to a criminal parallel with Cartismandua, of cruel 
and treacherous memory. Catherine ever aimed to avert 
evil, while her opponent " nursed her wrath" till it teemed 
with deadly bitterness, and overflowed in deeds of blood- 
shed, as in the heinous case of the murder of the parson of 
Llanvrothen. 

It was soon after this spirited defence of her household 
that Catherine departed this life, doubtless to the deep 
regret of her admiring contemporaries ; and most especially 
of her husband and children, to whom such a woman must 
have been singularly dear, in those noblest of feminine cha- 
racters — a good wife and mother. 

It was a short space after the Yorkist earl of Pembroke 
made his destructive visit to North Wales, the plague came 
to aid his desolating march, and in the flower of his life, the 
thirty-first year of his age, carried off Ievan ab Robert, at his 
house at Caselgyvarch. He had married a second time, and 
left three children by his first,, and as many by his second 
wife ; but his death entirely ended the strife between his 
survivors and the fierce, restless family of Howel ab Rhys, 
his brother-in-law. 






CATHERINE, 

DAUGHTER OF ROBIN VAUGHAN OF DENBIGHLAND, AND WD7E! 
OF RHYS AB EINEON OF HENBLAS, DENBIGHSHIRE. 

This lady, the cousin of Ievan ab Robert, who, with his 
wife, figures in the preceding memoir, was a gentle contrast 
to the spirited females of these turbulent times ; and as 
gentleness in woman is more attractive and winning than 
any demonstrations of violent passion, although elicited in 
our own behalf, it is probable that sweet attribute won 
her kinsman's best regards, and saved her and her family 
from ruin ; otherwise his public duties must have doomed 
them to destruction. Catherine was the daughter of Robin 
Vaughan of Denbighland, and married to a gentleman 
named Rhys ab Eineon. They resided at Henblas* in 
Maethbrwd, Denbighshire; and although they were parti- 
sans of the house of York, and Ievan ab Robert the active 
adherent of the Lancastarians, the latter allowed the do- 
mestic affections to predominate over his politics. In 
his terrible and destructive visit to their neighbourhood, 
while the dwellings of the friends of York blazed, and their 
inmates fled to the mountains, or perished by the sword or 
fire, the domicile of his gentle cousin Catherine was held 
sacred, and he even made it his temporary place of sojourn. 
As a stern picture of the ferocity of the times, and the re- 
lentless cruelty of that memorable civil war, and to exhibit 
the danger which this family escaped, from the interest of 
Catherine with her cousin, we quote the following from Sir 
John Wynn's " History of the Gwydirf Family: "— 

" The warrs of Lancaster and Yorke, beginning this sum- 
mer, made Ievan ab Robert forgetfull of his promise to 
redeems the hnds ; for in the time of that civill warre land 

* Henblas signifies old-place. 

t The name of Gwydir is derived from Gwaed-dir, signifying "bloody land," 
from the mansion being built near the spot where a bloody battle was fought, in 
the year 592, between the sons of Howel Dda and Ievan and Iago, two sons of 
Edwal Voel, who had usurped the sovereignty of North Wales. The house 
was erecled about tbe year 1558, by John Wynne ab Meredith. 



138 



CATHERINE. 



was not ought worth, neither was it redeemed during his 
life. In those warrs Ievan ab Robert ab Meredith, even in 
the sixth of Edward the Fourth, with David ab Jenkin and 
other captaines of the Lancastarian faction, wasted with fire 
and sword the suburbs of the town of Denbigh. In revenge 
of this Edward the Fourth sent Willliam, earle of Pembroke, 
with a great army to waste the mountaine countreys of 
Carnarvon and Merionethshire, and take the castle of Hard- 
lech (held then by David ab Eineon for the two earles, 
Henry, earle of Richmond, and Jasper,* earle of Pembroke), 
which garle did execute his chardges to the full, as witnesseth 
this Welsh rime — 

'Hardlech a Dinbech pob dor 

Yn cunnev, 
Nantconway yn farwor 

Mil a phedwarcant mae lor 
A thrugain ag wyth rhagor.' " 

Translation — At Harddlech and Denbigh every house was 
in flames, and Nantconwy in cinders — one thousand four 
hundred (years) from our Lord, and sixty-eight more. 

" In that expedition Ievan ab Robert lay one night at the 
house of Rhys ab Eineon, at Henblas, who married his cosen 
Catherine, daughter of Robin Vaughan ; and setting forth 
very early, before day, unwittingly carried upon his finger 
the wrestf of his cosen* s harpe, whereon (as it seemeth) he 
had played over night, as the manner was in those days, to 
bring himselfe asleepe. This he returned by a messenger, 
unto his cosen, with this message withall, that he came not 
into Denbighland to take from his cosen as much as the 
wrest of her harpe: whereby it appeareth that by his 
means neither her house, nor any of her goods were burnt, 
wasted, hurt, or spoyled. Thus both her houses, Henblas 
and Brynsyllty escaped the earl Herberte's desolation, 
though the same consumed the whole burrough of Llanrwst, 
and all the vale of Conway besides, to cold coals (cinders)* 

* England had a duplicate set of nobles in those days, one of the Yorkist, and 
the other of the Lancastarian side. As the king of either party prevailed, hia 
followers displaced those who held their estates and titles. In this instance we 
have two earls of Pembroke at the same time ; William Herbert under the 
house of York, and Jasper Tudor of the Lancastarian side ; the former having 
received his honours from Edward the IV. and the latter from Henry VI. 

t The wrest of a harp is the hollow iron with which the strings are tuned; 
this term is still used by the harpsichord tuners for an instrument which they 
use for the same purpose. — Note by the Eon. Dairies Barrington. 



idf 



CATHERINE OF FRANCE, 

DAUGHTER OF CHARLES VI. OF FRANCE, QUEEN OF HENRY V. 
OF ENGLAND, AND AFTERWARDS WIFE OF OWEN TUDOR, 
FOUNDER OF THE ROYAL RACE OF TUDOR. 

Catherine, the youngest daughter of Charles •VI. of 
France and Isabella of Bavaria, was born in 1401. Her 
elder sister Isabella, had been married to Richard II. of 
England at seven years of age ; and on the murder of that 
unhappy king, in 1400, she was detained in honourable 
custody by the usurper of his throne Henry IV., perhaps the 
youngest widow and queen-dowager on record, being then 
only eleven years old. The court of France repeatedly 
demanded the liberation and return of the young queen ; 
but instead of acceding to their desires, Henry made over- 
tures to the royal family of France to have her married to 
his son, the prince of Wales, afterwards king Henry V. 
Avoiding a positive refusal, they evaded his desire as long 
as possible ; " for," says Rapin, «' neither Charles's brother 
nor uncles would ever consent to it, not being able to 
think of marrying the young queen to a prince whose father 
was generally reckoned the murderer of her first husband. 
They alleged, however, another reason for declining it ; 
namely, that her father not being in a condition to manage 
his affairs, they durst not treat of his daughter's marriage 
without his consent.* A second reason why Henry deferred 

* Her father being at this time insane ; the cause of his insanity (whence 
the mental imbecility of his grandson Henry VI. of England) is thus related 
by the French historians. "As the king was marching at the head of his 
army, to subdue and arrest a criminal baron, when he entered the forest of 
Mans, a man clothed in white, and of a hideous aspect, suddenly sprang from a 
thicket, and seizing his horse's head, exclaimed, ' advance no farther— thou art 
betrayed oh king !" ' Thiers observes, " such an incident was scarcely needed to 
turn so weak a brain as that of Charles VI." He became raging mad. Having 
recovered some time afterwards, he relapsed into derangement at the end of a 
masked ball, in which his clothes caught fire. It was in vain that a pretended 
magician came forth to cure him : he remained demented with lucid intervals 
throughout his life. 



140 CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 

Isabella's restitution was, because he knew the money 
Richard received with her would be demanded. However, 
as he had no plausible pretence to detain her, he consented 
at last to restore her with part of her jewels.* 

When Henry V. came to the chrone, instead of repeating 
the demand of Isabella, his pride perhaps being hurt at the 
former evasion or refusal, he sought her younger sister 
Catherine for his future queen. Henry's first introduction 
to Catherine was in France, on May 29th, 1419, during the 
negociations between the English and French commissioners, 
respecting the terms on which the conqueror of Agincourt 
consented to arrest hostilities between the two countries — 
Rapin relates the matter thus — " The court of France being 
at Pontoise, Henry came to Mante in order to be near the 
place of conference. From these two towns it was that the 
two courts repaired every day to the place appointed. 
The first day the queen of France brought the princess 
Catherine her daughter, with whom Henry was charmed. 
The effect of this first sight being very visible, the queen 
believed she should inflame the desires of the prince by not 
letting her daughter appear any more. Henry soon perceived 
her design. He found the princess was to serve for a decoy 

* Bapin remarks, " he (Henry IV.) managed so artfully, that in the conven- 
tions made at Lelingham, there was no mention of restoring her treasure ; 
that became the subject of another negotiation." As queen Isabella's dowry and 
jewels became the fruitful source of disputation between the two kingdoms, a 
statement of the particulars will not be uninteresting. Richard's second mar- 
riage was with Isabella of France, in 1396, solemnized under splendid tents, 
raised between Andres and Calais, where the respective courts met and vied 
with each other in magnificence, and where the treaty for a twenty-eight years' 
trace between England and France was signed. Richard is said to have ex- 
pended on this occasion three hundred thousand marks, " a sum," says Rapin, 
" far exceeding that of two hundred thousand marks, which he received in de- 
duction, of what was promised him with Ms queen." In 1402, the French 
ambassadors again demanded the restitution of queen Isabella's dowry and 
jewels, but were quickly silenced when the English ambassadors, as instructed 
by the wily Bolinbroke, made reply, " that their master would doubtless agree 
to deduct that sum out of the million and a half of crowns, still due to England, 
for the ransom of their king John (taken prisoner by Edward III. at Poictiers)." 
In the project of a treaty with Henry V., in the year 1419, the following article 
appears :— " The king of England shall repay the six hundred thousand crowns 
given to Richard II. in part of the eight hundred thousand promised with qtieen 
Isabella ; and, moreover, four hundred thousand for that princess's jewels 
detained in England, to which ' Harry of Monmouth,' replied with humorous 
bluntness, ' the king is willing that this article be allowed out of the arrears 
due for king John's ransom. However he is surprised at the demand of four 
hundred thousand crowns for queen Isabella's jewels, when they were not worth 
a quarter of that sum.' " It is to be remembered that the gallant Henry married 
Catherine without either dowry or jewels ; the sovereignty of France, according 
to treaty, being his after her father's death. 



CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 141 

to ensnare him. But to frustate the queen's expectation, he 
told the duke of Burgundy, it might be depended upon, he 
would never quit his arms till he had the king and the 
princess his daughter in his power, and had expelled him 
the kingdom in case he opposed it." Thus the common 
trick of a "managing mother," resorted to by this cunning 
French queen, was demolished at once and given to the 
winds by the rough plain dealing of the English king, who, it 
must be admitted, adopted rather a Petruchio-like style of 
wooing — and ultimately may be said to have carried his 
point at the end of his sword. Accordingly, agreeable to 
the conditions of the treaty of Troyes, he was married to 
that princess on the 2nd June, 1420 ; Catherine being then 
in her nineteenth year, and Henry in his thirty-second. 
She was crowned queen of England in February, 1421, and 
in the latter part of the same year, she gave birth to a young 
prince, who afterwards became Henry VI. This was 
perhaps the most happy, as it certainly was the most 
brilliant period of the life of Catherine — as she was at the 
same time queen of England and queen -regent of France. 
After her marriage both Henry and Catherine passed fre- 
quently to and fro between England and France — residing 
for a brief space alternately in each. Rapin states, " in April, 
1422, Queen Catherine arrived from England, attended by 
the duke of Bedford, who had left the regency to the duke 
of Gloucester his brother. The two courts joining at Bois 
de Vincennes, went from thence soon after to keep the 
Whitsun holidays at Paris. Henry lodged in the Louvre, 
and Charles in the palace of St. Pol, where he had but a 
small court, whilst the regent-king's was numerous and splen- 
did. On Whitsunday they dined together in public, the two 
kings and two queens with crowns on their heads." 

All this time Henry was carrying on the war against the 
French Dauphin ; and " whilst he was pleasing himself with 
the hopes of a victory that would render him master of all 
France, he was seized with a flux which obliged him to 
stay at Senlis." Brilliant as the carreer of Henry had 
hitherto been, it was destined to be of brief duration ; and 
he little thought, at the commencement of his illness, that 



142 CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 

he was stricken with the fatal malady that doomed him to 
an early grave. His fortitude, under the severe pains of his 
complaint, was as exemplary as his courage in the day of 
battle. He gave the necessary orders suitable to the 
emergency of the occasion with his usual calmness; and 
sent the duke of Bedford to supply his presence, with the 
required troops to oppose the Dauphin — whose arrange- 
ments were thereby entirely baffled and destroyed. " Hop- 
ing his distemper would wear off, after resting a little 
at Senlis, he took a litter, in which he was carried at the 
head of his army. But his illnes still increasing, he resolved 
to return to Vincennes. Convinced at length that there 
were no hopes of his recovery, and that he was on the point 
of death, his dying words, amidst his assembled nobles, 
manifested his intense care for the kingdom's weal, and his 
tenderness for those most near and dear to him. He 
coDJured them, for God's sake, to remain in strict union for 
the service of the infant prince who was going to be their 
king, to take care of his education, and give the queen all 
the consolation that lay in their power ', and for which she had 
so great occasion. This great prince expired on the 31st 
August, 1422, in the thirty -fourth year of his age, after a 
triumphant reign of nine years, five months, and eleven days* 
His body was brought to England and buried amongst 
his ancestors in Westminster Abbey, with a funeral pomp 
suitable to the grandeur he enjoyed whilst alive, and to the 
esteem conceived of him by his subjects."* He was interred 
at the feet of Edward the Confessor, in a little chapel, since 
enlarged and beautified with several statues, and fenced with 
two iron grates by Henry VII. Queen Catherine who was 
deeply immersed in grief for the loss of a husband as affec- 
tionately tender towards her as he was illustrious in the 
nation's eyes for his public virtues, to honour his memory 
to the best of her power, she caused a tomb of grey marble 
of exquisite conception and workmanship to be erected 
over his grave. She also had cast a massy silver gilt 
image of the deceased prince, in royal attire, said to have 

* Rapin. 



CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 143 

been extremely like him,* which was placed on his tomb ; 
altogether a very touching memorial of conjugal affection, 
happily combining with the national sympathy, for the loss 
of one of England's greatest heroes. 

Severely as Catherine was afflicted by the loss of her 
renowned royal husband, she had yet another blow to en- 
dure, which she was ill prepared to withstand. On the 21st 
October of this same year, less than two months after the 
death of Henry, she had to lament the decease of her father 
Charles VI. of France, whose long insanity became the 
source of the most frightful evils to that unhappy land. 
The position of her native country at this time, in regard 
of the nation of her adoption, must also have been exces- 
sively distressing to her ; for her infant son, then only nine 
months old.f and her brother Charles, late Dauphin, were 
by their different partisans at the same time proclaimed 
kings of France. 

Rapin gives the following picture of these times — " whilst 
the duke of Bedford (protector and uncle of the infant king) 
was taking all necessary precautions to settle the affairs of 
his royal nephew, the Dauphin was no less intent upon 
his. He was at Espaly, a house belonging to the bishop of 
Puy, when he heard of his father's death. He shed many 
tears at the news, whether Nature roused herself upon the 
occasion, or he had really preserved an affection for a father 
who was not to be blamed for the mischiefs he had done 
him. The first day he appeared in mourning, but on the 
morrow put on scarlet, and was proclaimed king of France 
with all the solemnity the circumstances of his court, and 
the place he was in, would permit. After that he came to 
Poictiers, where he had removed the parliament of Paris. He 
was crowned there in the beginning of November, because the 
city of Rheims, where the coronation of the kings of France 
is usually performed, was in the hands of the English. 
Thus Henry VI. and Charles VII. assumed, both at the 

* "About the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII. the head, being of massy 
silver, was broken off and conveyed away with the plates of silver that covered 
his trunk, which now only remains of heart of oak." — Rapin's History of England. 

t In the first parliament of the reign of Henry VI. , queen Catherine came 
and sat among the lords with the infant king in her lap. 

M 



144 CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 

same time, the title of king of France, and disputed with 
each other the possession of the throne thirty years.'' 

The history of Catherine, from the death of Henry V. to 
the manhood of her son, must have been that of a queen- 
mother without a court, in consequence of the war, which 
kept the nobility of the country so long away ; and perhaps, 
from the first female in the state, she came to be considered 
of secondary, if not of third degree importance. We infer 
this from the circumstances of the duke of Bedford, regent 
of France, and the duke of Gloucester, protector of the young 
king, being both married ; and their high and haughty 
ladies perhaps capable enough, with impunity, of morti- 
fying the quiet and unassuming Catherine, who appears in 
all things to have been a happy and amiable contrast to her 
mischievous and intriguing mother, the queen of France ;* 
and yet Catherine, as we shall see, was not deficient in 
spirit when occasion called it forth. 

We have now arrived at the portion of this biography 
which may fitly be distinguished as the second part of the 
memoirs of Catherine of France. In the first division of 
her life, we have seen her surrounded with all the " pomp 
and circumstance" attendant on her felicitous position, as 
the daughter of one mighty king, and the honoured wife of 
a still mightier. We have seen her, from a daughter of 
France and a crowned queen of England, by the sudden 
death of her heroic lord, become a queen dowager at the 
early age of twenty- one ; and from having been " the 
observed of all observers,'' almost sink into a cypher at the 
court where she was so lately idolized. That she afterwards 
evinced the possession of a mind which dared to break 
through the wretched conventionalities which cast their mist 
of false seeming around her, and seize on the best realities 
within her reach appertaining to human happiness ; that 
she dared to think and act according to her convictions of 
what is best — these noble instances of true womanhood, 



* Isabella of Bavaria, queen dowager of France, died on the 30th September, 
1 435. Rapin says, " seeing the prosperity of the king, her son, whom she mortally 
hated, and the desperate condition of the English, she died at Paris with grief 
and vexation. She was universally hated by the French, who considered her 
the principal cause of the ruin of the kingdom." 






CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 145 

drew from the minions of the mighty, the parasites of power, 
the sycophants of place and office, and such palace furniture 
and machines, nothing but unmerited obloquy, the echoed 
cant of the heartless and truthless of her day. 

In the year 1427, among the visitors at court, queen 
Catherine particularly noticed a young gentleman of very 
handsome features and graceful carriage. Learning that he 
was a Welshman, his name Q_wp>n Judo r. and that his 
countrymen were famous for dancing, with the animated 
gaiety of Frenchwoman, the young queen dowager desired 
him to dance in her presence. Willing, perhaps, to 
show off his graces in an accomplishment of which he was 
reputed to be somewhat masterly, Owen immediately com- 
plied — and with the utmost animation danced a Welsh jig ; 
and during its performance met the applause of the sur- 
rounding ladies, especially of the queen herself. But towards 
the conclusion of this Welsh specimen of the " poetry of 
motion," an accident took place of a whimsical description. 
According to one record, in the course of his evolutions, he 
trod upon her majesty's toe, and thereby lost his footing and 
fell ; according to another account, in a turn of over-wrought 
agility, not being able to recover his equilibrium, the dis- 
aster we are about to state occurred. But all accounts agree 
that his fall was lt into the queen's lap as she sat on a low 
stool with many of her ladies about her." Pughe, in his 
14 Cambria Depicta" says, " the gracefulness of his manner in 
making an apology, soon procured him a pardon ; the queen, 
very pleasantly jesting with him, said, that so far from 
offending her, it would only increase the pleasure of fcterself 
and the company if he would repeat the same false step or 
mistake." 

It is to be inferred from subsequent events, as well as 
from the statement of different authors, that the queen 
became deeply in love with him ; and that by private 
arrangements they afterwards frequently met ; and the 
upshot of their improved acquaintance was a resolution on 
the part of Catherine to give her hand in marriage to this 
private gentleman of Wales. When her majesty's deter- 
mination to espouse him became known, malignity, envy, 



146 CATHERINE OF TRANCE. 

and national prejudice, with every other species of uncharit- 
ableness, seemed to have formed a combination with the 
fiends, who came singly, in pairs, and in parties, to buz in 
her ears that she was about to commit an inconceivable 
enormity in marrying a Welshman. That a Welshman was 
but another name for a savage, or barbarian ; one whose 
claim to a relationship with the human race was more than 
problematical, and some day or other might very probably 
be disproved. It was with some such logic as this that the 
catholic priesthood of Spain denounced Joseph Bonaparte 
as a one-eyed monster, which eye of fiendish lustre they 
said he sported in Cyclopean fashion in the centre of his fore- 
head. Although the Spaniards of Madrid daily saw this 
handsome brother of the French emperor on horseback 
riding through the streets with the usual number of eyes 
set in their accustomed places, none but the heretical and 
impious dared believe what so plainly appeared contrary to 
the statements of their confessors — for the good fathers 
insisted that occular demonstration was by no means to be 
depended on, but was evidently a delusion caused by the evil 
one. So the pious people of Madrid, like " good catholics,'* 
as they were, according to the rules of blind obedience 
exacted by their church, resigned up their private judgment, 
and fervently believed that king Joseph bore a most bro- 
therly resemblance to Polyphemus of old, and execrated 
him accordingly. Queen Catherine, however, was not so 
docile towards her informants, nor could she by any means 
be bothered into a belief that was contrary to the evidence 
of her senses. 

Preferring her own taste and judgment in a matter that 
so nearly concerned herself to those of any others, and 
perceiving Owen Tudor to be a better looking man, more 
elegant in his motions, and polite in his manners, than nine 
out of ten of his traducers, settled the matter one fine morn- 
ing, in the year 1428,* by committing with him the unrecal- 
able act of matrimony. 

* Some of the recorders of this marriage insinuate that it occurred soon after 
the death of her first husband, for the obvious purpose of defaming her ; but 
Halle, the severest of her censurers, admits it was in 1428, after six years* 
widowhood. 



Y^qfvT 



jwr-artW-^Mfc) 



CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 147 

Yorke, in his "Royal Tribes of Wales," informs us that 
" Queen Catherine being a French woman born, the relict of 
Henry V., knew no difference between the English and the 
Welsh nations* until her second marriage being published, 
when Owen Tudor's kindred and countrymen were objected 
to, to disgrace him as most vile and barbarous ; which made 
her desire to see some of his kinsmen. Whereupon Owen 
brought to her John ab Meredith,f and Howel ab Llewelyn, 
his near cousins, and men of goodly stature and personage, 
but wholly ignorant of the English language and the easy 
manners of courtly life ; for when the queen had spoken to 
them in different languages, and they were not able to 
answer her, she said they were the goodliest looking dumb 
creatures that she ever bebeld." 

The different authors who have written of this marriage 
have done their utmost endeavours to disparage both parties; 
and as Owen and his Welsh supporters insisted on his 
descent from ancient British princes, in after time satis- JT" 
factorily proved,! both the English and French united to <r 
cast a doubt on the assertion. Rapin says " Catherine of 
France, who had married Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman, 
descended, it is said, from the ancient kings of Wales. I do 
not know whether in those days his descent was much^-' 
regarded, or was endeavoured to be traced, till after the 
crown was devolved to the family of the Tudors by the 
advancement of Henry VII. to the throne. However that 
be, when queen Catherine espoused Owen Tudor, the 
marriage appeared so unsuitable that all England was 
6ffended at it ; and the more, as it was made unknown to the 
duke of Gloucester, who was then protector. But that 

* This is very improbable, asherftytb^CharlesVI., sent a French army and 
navy to^assisJuQwen^jQ^^ In 1405 the marshal de 

Montmorency arrived in MUford Haven with a fleet of one hundred and forty 
sail, and twelve thousand men. It is true Catherine was very young then, but 
as a matter of history of her own times she must have heard of these stirring 
events. 

t Of these gallant Welshmen more hereafter in this memoir. 

t When Henry VII. came to the throne, he set this matter at rest for ever by 
sending commissioners into Wales to examine into the pedigree of his grand- 
father. They testified the accuracy of Owen's descent from the Welsh princes 
of most remote antiquity; and proved rather too much than otherwise, as 
among the records they consulted were those contained in the spurious history 
concocted by that notorious fabulist Jeffery of Monmouth. 

M 2 



148 CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 

prince's veneration for the memory of the king, his brother, 
prevented him from giving the queen, his sister-in-law, any 
trouble." This generous forbearance was worthy of the 
"good duke Humphrey," whose worth, justice, and great 
qualities made him the darling of the people of England. 
Halle, speaking of Catherine says, " who beyng yonge and 
lusty e, folowying more her owne appetyte than frendlely 
consaille, and regardying more her privat affectione than her 
open honor, toke to husbonde privilie (in 1428) a goodlie 
gentylman and a beautifulle personne, garniged (garnished) 
with manye goodlye giftes bothe of nature and of grace, 
callyde Owen Teuther,* a man brought furth and com of 
the nobyle lignage and aunciente lyne of Cadwalader, the 
last kynge of the Brittones. ,> 

It is to be regretted that so little is known of the private 
lives of Owen and Catherine, but there is every reason to 
believe they lived very happily together ; as their traducers 
would have been glad enough could they put on record any 
scandalous anecdote illustrative of the slightest shadow of 
connubial infelicity between them. Doubtless Catherine 
made a good exchange of a dull widowhood, attended with 
all the hollow-hearted formalities of courtly state, for the 
solid and pure comforts of private life, and the faithful affec- 
tions of the kindest of husbands, who was also, " unbon- 
netted"f as he stood, one of the handsomest men, and of the 
noblest presence in the kingdom. The pictured likenesses 
of the royal race of Tudor, from the first to the last, hear us 
out in the latter statement — inferior as they are all supposed 
to be, compared with their ancestor Owen, who, although 
noJJnghimself, nor evenknighted till late in life, became 
the founder of a line of princes the Imb^tnnjeanTSfable and 
renowned in English history. 

Nine years after this union Owen was destined to lose his 
amiable consort. Catherine died at the monastery of 
Bermondsey, in South wark, on the 3rd of January, 1437» 

C* This is an attempt at spelling the name according to the proper Welsh pronun- 
ciation of it. The correct orthography is Tewdwr ; figurative of a stalwart 
warrior in the field, signifying stout tower of battle— a tower of strength. The 
brawny figure of Henry VIII. is a fair illustration of it. 
t " Unbonnetted," a Shakspearean phrase implying without coronet, or bonnet 
of state. 



CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 149 

in the thirty-sixth year of her age. If the splendour of her 
obsequies could compensate for the obloquy cast on her 
while living, and since her death, rarely was there seen so 
magnificent a funeral. Her corpse lay in state at JBer- 
mondsey monastery from the 3rd of January to the 18th of 
February following, set forth and attended with all the 
pompous ceremonies peculiar to funeral pageants of the 
church of Rome. From thence a grand procession of the 
priesthood, in their canonicals, bearing the host and singing 
requiems, attended the body to St. Catherine's, by the 
tower of London — from thence to St. Paul's — and so on to 
Westminster Abbey, where she was interred.* 

By his marriage with queen Catherine, Owen had four 
children — three sons and a daughter.f His eldest son was 
Edmund, surnamed of Hatfield, that royal residence having 
been his birth place. The second son was Jasper — the 
third Owen — and the daughter bore her mother's name? 
Catherine. On the death of their mother Edmund and 
Jasper were placed under the care of an eminent lady, 
Catherine de la Pole, daughter of Michael de la Pole, earl 
of Suffolk, and lady abbess of Berking. A petition from 
her dated 1440 appears on record for the payment of certain 
money due to her on their account. Notwithstanding the 
persecution and ultimate neglect which became the lot of 
Owen Tudor, his children were nobly provided for. Ed- 
mund of Hatfield was created earl of Richmond, married 
Margaret, sole daughter of John, duke of Somerset, and 
became the father of Henry who succeeded him in that 
earldom, and afterwards known as king Henry VII. Jas- 
per Tudor was successively created earl of Pembroke and 
duke of Bedford. | Owen, the youngest son, embraced an 



* When Henry VII. laid the foundation of his new chapel there, her corpse 
(or rather her coffin) was taken up ; and says Rapin, on the authority of Sandford 
and Stow, " she was never since buried, but remaineth still above ground, in a 
coffin of boards, near the sepulchre of Henry V. her first husband." 

t He had also an illegitimate son named Davydd, knighted by king Henry 
VII., who also took care that his near kinsman should be honourably married, 
and bestowed on him the hand of Mary, the daughter and heiress of John 
Bohun of Midhurst, in Sussex, and with her a great inheritance. 

t The reader of English history will be aware that, during the civil wars of 
York and Lancaster, there were not only two kings, alternately on and off the 



150 CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 

ecclesiastical life in the abbey of Westminster ; and had he 
lived, might have been destined to a mitre or the scarlet hat 
of a Cardinal ; but he died in early life, as did also his sister 
Catherine. 

Alas for Owen Tudor! — splendid and above his sphere as 
his union with the young widowed queen was deemed, 
except in his happy intercourse with her during the brief 
period of their union, little had he to boast of gain in the 
sum of human happiness by his elevation. Well authen- 
ticated history informs us, as before noticed, that " the good 
duke Humphrey/' of Gloucester, had too much veneration 
for the memory of his deceased royal brother to disturb his 
widow* for her unsanctioned marriage with Owen Tudor. 
But Rapin adds, " when she was dead, the council (at the 
head of whom was cardinal Beaufort) had not the same 
regard for her second husband. They considered it their 
duty to punish him for his rashness in daring to espouse the 
king's mother without the consent of those who governed 
the kingdom, and ordered him to be imprisoned.f Accord- 
throne, but two sets of nobles also enjoying and enduring similar fortunes : as 
each of the sovereigns with their followers prevailed or lost the ascendant, 
their partisan nobles were elevated or deprived. Thus, on the defeat of the 
Lancastarians and the success of the arms of York, Jasper Tudor ceased to be 
earl of Pembroke, as king Edward IV. raised to that rank Sir William Herbert, 
the eldest son of William ab Thomas of Rhagland castle, and grandson of the 
celebrated Sir David Gam. When a change ot fortune enabled king Henry VI. 
to recover his crown, Jasper Tudor also resumed his lost coronet, and ultimately 
was raised to the dukedom of Bedford. 

* That Gloucester spared him was a sufficient motive for the malignant 
cardinal of Winchester, who was then chief counsellor to the king, to persecute 
and oppress him to the utmost of his power. Of this bitter dignitary of the 
church Rapin says, " the cardinal of Winchester, one of the principal authors of 
the (Hike of Gloucester's death, enjoyed but one month the satisfaction of his 
enemy's fall. He is said to die in a sort of a passion, that his riches were not 
capable of exempting him from the common fate of all mankind, and to see 
himself thereby on a level with the most miserable. One of the masterly efforts 
of Shakspeare is the death scene of this demon cardinal, in his historical drama 
of king Henry VI., when prince Henry witnessing the violent contortions and 
terrible struggles of his final hour, affectingly entreats him to lift his hand, in 
token of his dying at peace with the world and in confidence of salvation— seeing 
Mm expire, exclaims— 

* He dies— and makes no sign !' 

Six words, combining a sentence of the most awful import that ever was con- 
ceived by poet or uttered by man." 

t During the lifetime of the queen we are told the marriage had been winked 
a£— notwithstanding that a law had been made after the occurrence of that 
event enacting that no person, under severe penalties, should marry a queen 
dowager of England without the special license of the king. 



CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 151 

ingly he was seized and committed — not as some writers 
have affirmed, to the tower, but as if determined to mortify 
and degrade him, even in the place selected for his incar- 
ceration, to the common ^ison^of Newg ate. From thence 
he escaped by tKeassTsfance of his confessor and his servant. 
He was soon after retaken, and placed in close confinement 
under the custody of the earl of Suffolk, constable of the 
castle of Wallingford. His persecutors deeming such cap- 
tivity too honourable, perhaps, caused him once more to be 
committed to Newgate — from which he a second time con- 
trived to escape. The extent of his second confinement is 
unknown, but it does not appear that he was ever committed 
to custody again. The death of that great criminal and 
odious statesman, Beaufort, cardinal of Winchester, his 
prime enemy, occurring in the year 1447, may be the reason 
why he was no further molested by the authorities of the 
time. 

Although we have now passed the boundary of the 
personal life of Catherine of France, yet, as a portion of the 
history of her times, it behoves us to cast a glance on the 
fortunes of her illustrious widower and sons, who in a short 
space after her decease became actively engaged in the civil 
wars which broke out between the rival houses of York and 
Lancaster, that for thirty years after, with brief intervals 
between, deluged England with blood, almost annihilated 
the nobles and gentry of the land on both sides, and ended 
in the battle of Bosworth field ; the result of which was the 
elevation of her grandson to the throne of England as king 
Henry VII. 

In the year 1452, king Henry VI. was disturbed in his 
reign by the open claim to the crown of the duke of York, 
as the nearest descendant of Richard II., dethroned by 
Henry IV., the former's grandfather. To strengthen their 
interest, among other means, the government became aware 
of the expediency of conciliating the natives of North Wales, 
and engaging them in their cause by bestowing honours on 
the race of Tudor — as they saw those of South Wales were 
notoriously under the influence of the Herberts of Mon- 
mouthshire devotedly engaged in the service of the house 



152 CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 

of York.* To that end, it was at this time of peril to the 
reigning dynasty that the two sons of Owen Tudor were 
ennobled and created earls. As before observed, Edmund 
became earl of Richmond, and Jasper earl of Pembroke.")" 
But it seems the olden grudge against their father, though 
diminished in its asperity, still existed in a subdued degree, 
as neither title nor favour of any kind was bestowed on 
Owen at this period. However, in the wars that imme- 
diately followed, Owen Tudor generously became a zealous 
partisan of the house of Lancaster, from which he had 
endured so much persecution, and highly distinguished 
himself by his valour and conduct. "What rank he held in 
the army, or by what means he was introduced into military 
life, is not on record, but it is supposed he fought in the first 
instance as a volunteer, and won his subsequent promotion 
by distinguished services. 

Ini;he course of these eventful wars of the Roses, in the 
year 1460, Owen Tudor was taken prisoner by the Yorkists, 
and confined in the new castle on the Usk,J where his fate 
appeared inevitably sealed ; as in this most rentless of civil 
wars, capital punishment was always the destiny of every 
prisoner of rank of either party. But an instance of heroism 
and refined generosity, on the part of his relatives and 
countrymen of North Wales, is about to be related, which 
for the present averted his doom, and at the same time it 

* In addition to attachment to their native military leaders the Herberts, 
the people of South Wales and a portion of those of the North, were biassed, in 
favour of the cause of York by the consideration that the head of that house, 
who aimed at the crown, was descended maternally from their own regal race ; 
one of the Mortimers having married the princess Gwladys Ddu, daughter of 
Llewelyn ab Iorworth, and aunt of our last native prince Llewelyn ab Griffith, 

'A her memoir in this work. 

f Remarking on this elevation of the sons of Owen Tudor, Pennant states, 
'• the Welsh, flattered by the honours bestowed on their young countrymen, 
ever after faithfully adhered to the house of Lancaster." How a writer, gene- 
rally so accurate, could make such a statement appears strange. It is true that 
the majority of the people of North Wales became Lancasterians ; and it is 
equally true that almost all the natives of South Wales, for reasons before stated, 
-followed the fortunes of the house of York ; and no less than five thousand 
Welshmen perished on the fatal field of Danesmoor, when their army wa3 
defeated by the Lancastarians. See the memoir of Ellen Gethin in this work. 

% The New castle on the Usk, was Newport castle, and not Usk castle, as 
reported by some writers . In fact the Welsh name of Newport is Castell Newydd, 
or Newcastle. The ruins of this castle, by Newport bridge, have been turned 
into a brewery these many years past ; and we regret to have witnessed how 
modern Vandalism has destined a portion of the venerable fortress to be pulled 
down to facilitate the approach to the new railroad bridge over the Usk. 




CATHERINE OP FRANCE. 153 

aids powerfully to falsify the barbarity imputed by Pin- 
kerton to be inherent and unchangeable in the Celtic race. 

The capture of J3 wen Tudor, his imprisonment in a strong 
castleTanlnns impending fate were soon known, and created 
a powerful sensation in North Wales. One hundred gentle- 
tlemen of that country formed themselves into a band, and 
volunteered their services to rescue him from his captivity 
or perish in the attempt. Placing themselves under the 
command of John ab Meredith, who first inspired them 
with the idea of this enterprize, they travelled southward 
with the celerity which the imminent peril of the illustrious 
captive required, till they reached the new castle on the 
bank of the river Usk. It has not been stated in what 
manner they contrived to enter this fortress ; but probably it 
was either by bribing its guards, or some well-contrived 
stratagem, for they were neither in sufficient force nor pro- 
vided with the necessary engines for taking it by storm. 
However that may have been they succeeded in their object, 
rescued their countryman, and bore him off in triumph. On 
their return towards the north, when only four miles from 
the castle which they had left, and only two miles beyond 
Caerleon,* they suddenly found themselves opposed by a 
superior number of their enemies, the partisans of the house 
of York, drawn up in order of battle, to intercept their 
retreat. Conceiving the destruction of their small party 
next to a certainty, with undaunted coolness that reflects 
immortal honour on the man, John ab Meredith made his 
arrangements for a sudden and desperate onset, as their only 
feasible chance of escape appeared to be to cut their way 
through the midst of their enemies. Placing Howel ab 
Llewelyn and others, who were the sole heirs of their 
respective houses, in the rear, and out of the brunt of the 
attack, whilst all his own sons were drawn out in the van, 
headed by himself. With an animated countenance, full of 
daring, hope, and confidence, he addressed to them a few 

* Caerleon was formerly an archi-episcopal British city, a Roman station, 
and king Arthur's seat of sovereignty — but is now, and has been for centuries a 
mere village, situated two miles from the town of Newport, in Monmouthshire. 
Donovan the tourist and others have been very successful in their discoveries of 
remains of antiquity there, especially of Roman coins and utensils. 



1 54 CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 

inspiring words — he begged of them to remember that 
their conduct in that hour should be correspondent to the 
prowess and fame of their ancestors ; " never let it be said," 
added he, " when pointing to this spot in after times, that 
here a hundred gentlemen of North Wales fled before their 
foes ; but rather let the place be ever memorable hereafter 
as the honoured scene where a hundred north Welsh gentle- 
men were slain in a noble enterprize before an unequal 
number of their enemies !" then rushing forward with a 
shout, imitating his example, they cut a passage through 
the midst of the Yorkists, and, strange to say, escaped, 
without losing a man, or suffering any material injury to 
any of their party except their chief himself. John ab 
Meredith received a sabre- cut in the face that caused him 
to be called Squier y graith, the squire of the scar, to his 
dying day. 

It is supposed to have been immediately after this fortu- 
nate rescue, in the year 1460, that Henry VI. knighted bis 
step-father and half-brother. It must have appeared strange 
to see his two sons, Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, and 
Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke, while their father still 
remained a commoner ; but it has been truly remarked, prior 
to his knighthood, the goverment took no further notice of 
Owen than to punish him for marrying the queen. But 
this honour of well-earned knighthood, slight as it was, 
considering his position as the widowed consort of the late 
queen dowager, the half-brother and step-father of the 
reigning king, and father of two earls, at least preceded 
similar honours bestowed in after years on his rival country- 
men, the two Herberts of the south, by Edward IV., although 
the elder of them afterwards, for a brief period, succeeded 
to the earldom then occupied by Jasper Tudor. This 
knighthood, however, was not the only reward which accrued 
to Owen at this time. He had, as a patent expresses it, 
"in regard of his good services" a grant of the parks and the 
"agistment" of the parks in the lordship of Denbigh, and the 
" wodewardship" of the same lordship awarded to him by the 
government, as the gift of the crown. 

Late as these honours and acquisitions fell to him, his 
enjoyment of them was of very brief space. The following 



CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 155 

year, the last of his mortal career, became also the harbinger 
of the downfall and utter extinction of the cause for which 
he fought. It was now drawing towards the final setting of 
the astral glories of the house of Lancaster, while the star 
of York was in the ascendant. The triumphs of both 
houses were marked with some of the wildest atrocities 
during the whole of this merciless and inhuman civil war. 
Queen Margaret having gained the battle of Wakefield, in 
which the duke of York, the pretender to the throne, was 
slain, she caused his head, crowned with paper, to be placed 
over the gates of the city of York ; and the earl of Salisbury, 
who had the misfortune to be taken prisoner, was beheaded 
at Pontefract by the command of that remorseless queen, 
and his head fixed on a pole near the duke of York's.* 

Breathing vengeance against the ferocious queen Mar- 
garet and her partisans for the death and dishonouring of 
his father, the earl of March, soon to be known as king 
Edward IV., gave battle to her generals, Jasper Tudor, earl 
of Pembroke, and James Butler, earl of Ormond, whom he 
met at Mortimer's cross, in Herefordshhje, on the 2nd Feb- 
ruary, 1461. As he was much superior in the number of 
his army, Edward easily defeated them, and slew three thou- 
sand eight hundred of their men — principally Welsh and 
Irish. 

Jasper Tudor, the defeated general in this battle, had the 
good fortune to escape ; but his father, with the ancient 
spirit of his countrymen, deeming it dishonourable to take to 
flight under any circumstances of peril, refused to quit the 
field, and was wjithjjej^ taken 

prisoner. Being conducted to the city of Hereford, they 
w^ere soon after JpeheadecL by the stern command of the earl 
of March, by this victory now became king Edward IV., 
in revenge for the death of his father and the earl of 
Salisbury. 

Thus fell the adventurous Welshman Owen Tudor, who, 
supposing him to have been twenty years of age at the time 

* When Edward IV. won the battle of Towton, on the 29th of March, 1461, 
he caused the head of his father and the earl of Salisbury to be taken down, 
and the heads of the earl of Devonshire, the earl of Kyme, and Sir William 
Hill, to take their places on the city walls. 

N 



156 CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 

of his marriage with queen Catherine, in 1428, was only 
fifty-three at the period of his death. The end of the reign 
of Henry VI., and ruin of the house of Lancaster, and 
consequent exaltation of the family of York immediately 
followed. Had Owen lived twenty-four years longer, he 
might have witnessed another instance of political ration, 
and seen hi s grandson , " Harry of Richmond," on the throne 
of England in the character of king Henry VII. 

The sjn^ularly r o m an tic origin of the m o^ powerful rac e 
of sovereign^that eveV swayefl the sceptre of these realms, 
has always been a subject of curious investigation with all 
our chroniclers and historians. Narrative, poetry, romance, 
and even satire,* have respectively drawn their materials 



* The English satirists of olden time found abundant food for their avocation 
in this subject. One of them pretended that queen Catherine, to appease her 
tormentors who objected to Owen's respectability, sent commissioners of her 
own choosing to Wales to visit his mountain home, the farm house of Pen- 
myuydd, in the island of Anglesea, to gather and report all the information 
gleanable there. These worthies were said to have been bribed both by Owen 
and the queen to give a favourable account ; and the former hurried home 
before them to put all things in their best order previous to their arrival — 
however they arrived in ^pglesea almost as soon as him. On their entrance into 
his paternal dwelling his ancient mother was seen sitting by the kitchen fire 
in her beehive pattern straw arm chair, while a long-bearded, lofty-horned he- 
goat, that seemed the very patriarch of his mountain race, was seated by her 
side : doubtless a very formidable and trusty guard, as immediately on the 
entrance of the strangers, he sprang forward and made head against them in- 
stanter, butting the foremost of them in the stomach — he knocked him and his 
followers backward in a heap, and would have pursued his advantage as they 
rose had not the servants seized and confined him with a rope attached to a 
staple in the wall, just as a vicious bull-dog is sometimes collared and muzzled 
in our days. The old lady was taking her dinner of flummery and milk from 
a wooden bowl with a horn spoon off one of the most primitive of native tables 
that the early world ever furnished — namely her lap, or knees. The gentleman 
who acted as secretary accordingly wrote down that they found his venerable 
parent supported by a guard such as no sovereign in Europe ever possessed the 
like ; and that she was dining off a table so exceedingly costly that she would 
not sell it for all the money in the treasury of England. Owen, who had 
dallied too long before he took his departure from the queen, not expecting 
these visitors so soon, happened at this very time to be shaving himself, and 
trimming his moustaches to the most fascinating cut, in the earthen-floor 
parlour, at a glass of the dimensions of a ticket porter's badge— but suddenly 
made his appearance to subdue the goat rumpus in his turned up shirt-sleeves, 
strapping his razor the while on his bare arm. The commissioners therefore 
recorded that they found in his possession a razor strap of such exceeding high 
value that he protested he would not part with it for ten thousand pounds. 
Possessing in an eminent degree the poetic talent of turning ugliness to beauty, 
the accommodating secretary had equally curious entries to read respecting the 
birch broom worn to the stump standing behind the door, the iron dinner pot 
and bakestone, with the musical concert performed by the bleating nanny-goats 
and their kids about the door. The English however would not suffer him to 
proceed in his report, but confessed they felt fully satisfied that Owen Tudor 
was a gentlemau of more consideration than ever they had previously 
conceived ! 



CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 157 

from the simple tale of the loves and happy union of the 
Welsh ad y^^ur < er M^ 0^eiaJE^dor and the romantic queen 
Cathermcfrom their own far distant day to the present ; 
yet, after the lapse of four centuries, their story continues to 
interest the readers of history with unabated zest. A 
retrospective glance over the memoir here presented to 
public inspection, in connection with the portion that is to 
follow, may aid to throw some new light on what has always 
been questionable, the pretensions of Owen Tudor to a 
descent from the sovereign princes of ancient Britain. 
Whatever demerit may attach to this essay on a subject 
that has engaged so many pens, at least it will not be found 
that undue national partiality has biassed the writer from 
the straight path of historical integrity. 

Rapin was, doubtless, right in his conjecture that there 
was very little, if any, inquiry made respecting the descent 
of Owen Tudor at the time of his marriage. The ani- 
mosity borne to him by the English appears to have in 
it less of personality than of that rancorous race-hatred 
existing from time immemorial between the Saxons and 
the Celts of Britain.* The high-born and ennobled of the 
land despised him probably for his plebeian position in 
addition to the antipathy of nationality ; many may be 
supposed to have founded their dislike on envy at his suc- 
cess ; while the mass of the English population saw nothing 
worse in him than the heinous offence of being a Welshman. 
Had those in authority not been blinded by such foolish 
prejudices, and assiduously put forth judicious inquiries into 
what really concerned the honour of the nation to learn, the 
respectability of the family and person on whom the queen 
had placed her affection, previous to the marriage, it is 
useless to deny or blink the question, discoveries might have 

* A feeling happily extinct in the present day, if we exeept certain slight 
instances generated principally by trade rivalry between the English settlers 
in Wales and the natives, and some isolated cases, " few and far between," 
of race-hatred among the most rude and ignorant worshippers of the past, who 
perversely turn their backs upon the sun of civilization and the onward velo- 
city of the train of progress— wilfully blind to the inexpressible blessings of frater- 
nal and national unity. Fortunately they are very few, periodically declining ; 
and may they be doomed, like those creatures in natural history, to utter ex- 
tinction when their prolonged existence would rather mar than aid the world 
in its advances. 



158 CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 

been made fatal to this alliance. There certainly existed a 
dark family secret, which, if divulged and bruited abroad 
among the English detractors of Owen Tudor, might have 
ruined his reputation, however personally blameless, even 
with the enamoured queen herself, and perhaps justified 
the protector and the council in authoritatively forbidding 
their union. But the secret was well kept — a proof that 
Owen had no enemies among the rival families of his 
own country, proverbial as the Celts have ever been for 
want of unison among themselves, and for their bitter 
local animosities. Had popular rumour ever breathed the 
tale that he was offspring of a man so tainted with infamy 
that he was compelled to fly his country to preserve his life, 
and whose name he was ashamed to bear, but bore his 
grandfather's instead — his ambitious hopes might have been 
at once blasted by the repugnance even of the queen 
herself at the startling announcement that she was about to 
take to her arms the son of a murderer. 

He was the grandson of Tudor ab Gorono, who, in addition 
to his undoubted descent from Cambrian blood-royal (as 
we shall presently make manifest), was a gentleman not only 
of high esteem among his own countrymen, but also a 
favourite of Edward III., who conferred on him the honour 
of knighthood in acknowledgment of his valour and military 
services. Meredith, the fourth son of Tudor ab Gorono was 
the father of Owen. His lot appears to have been more 
lowly cast than that of the generality of his progenitors, as 
he filled no higher station in life than that of Scutiger, or 
squire, to the bishop of Bangor; but this comparatively 
humble state would have been no disparagement to his 
respectability and standing in the world had his conduct 
been unimpeachable. It appears, however, that he was 
guilty of the heinous crime of murder, had to fly his 
country in consequence, passed the latter portion of his life 
as a refugee in a foreign land, and died an exile. Thus it is 
accounted for why the partisans and eulogizers of Owen 
always dwelt emphatically on his high descent from royal 
and renowned ancestors, while they took especial care to 
evade, or pass over unanswered, the question of his imme- 



CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 159 

diate parentage. Doubtless (though never hitherto assumed) 
that gallant and highly meritorious person John ab Meredith, 
•who accompanied him to court on his first interview with 
the queen, and who saved his ]ife by organizing and carrying 
out his perilous and eventful rescue from the new castle on 
the Usk, although called his "cousin," was in reality his 
brother, and probably his elder.* But Owen, like Napoleon, 
was the genius of his family, and nursing adventurous and 
ambitious projects, renounced the name of his crime- tainted 
father, and assumed that of his illustrious grandfather : and 
at the same time, as if to conciliate English prejudices, he 
dropped the * ap" that linked him to his race, which was as 
much an object of proud distinction with his countrymen 
as of ridicule among the natives of England. It appears 
also that h e alone , of all his kindred, spoke the English 
language, a polite and rare accomplishmenT^mongthe 
Welsh in those days, and held in high esteem by the better 
educated, though scorned by the rude votaries of exclusive 
nationality. 

In the utter absence of record and documentary evidence 
to cast a light on the subject, the introduction of Owen at 
the English court has never been accounted for. Pennant 
imagined that military services, the usual road in those 
days to such distinction, might have given him the entrance 
there ; but it is unlikely, for had that been the case, it would 
have been a fair subject for blazoning his reputation and 
pretensions. The "Welsh bards, apt as they were to seize 
on subjects flattering to their national pride, have been as 
silent on that theme .as the chroniclers and historians. 
Other writers, with greater colour of probability, have sug- 
gested that he might have been a retainer in the retinue of 
one of the noble families of the day, and went there in the 
train which accompanied his lord. 

Pennan t judiciously curtails his long pedigree in the 



* In confirmation of the probability that this conjecture is well founded, it 
•will be observed that John always bore his presumed father's name linked to 
his own, according to the national custom, " John ab Meredith ;" but taking a 
different method of concealing his parentage, he assumed the relationship of 
" cousin" to Owen — while his devotedly affectionate conduct towards him 
evinced the nearer tie of consanguinity. 

n2 



1 60 CATHERINE OP FRANCE. 

manner following : — " Notwithstanding that Owen was ca- 
lumniated, he certainly was of very high desce nt. Henry 
VII. early in his reign issued a commission to Sir John 
Leiaf, priest, Guttyn Owen, and a number of others, to 
make inquiry into his paternal descent, and they, from our 
Welsh chronicles, proved incontestably that he was lineally 
descended by issue male (saving one woman) from Brutus, 
grandson of iEneas the Trojan, and that he was son t o 
Brute in five score degrees/' He then adds, " I shaH~drop 
a little short of this long descent. Owen Tudor was assur- 
edly of high blood. He was seventh in fosnfaf , frn ™ 
EdnyvedVych.au, councellor and leader of the armies of 
Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, and a successful warrior against the 
English. His origin was from Marchydd, one of the fifteen 
tribes. Ednyved's wife was ^wenllfan, daughter df Rhys,* 
prince of South "Wales : so that he might boast of two royal 
descents, and deliver down a posterity not unworthy of the 
British empire." "\^__^/' 

Well aware how distasteful long genealogical discussions 
are to the majority of readers, we shall here close this some- 
what extended memoir. What further regards the ancestors 
of Owen Tudor the reader will find in our memoir of the 
princess Morveethe, an ancestress of that worthy ; wherein 
the curious in Welsh pedigrees will find his descent from 
the last reigning kings of Gwent clearly traced, even to the 
birth of Owen himself. This addenda to former researches 
we derived from a rare old tract written in the days of 
queen Anne, and preserved in the library of the British 
Museum. 

* Meaning the "lord" Rhys, grandson to the illustrious prince Rhys ah 
Tudor. 



GENERAL NOTES TO CATHERINE OF FRANCE. 

1. Notwithstanding the general accuracy of Rapin, he gives a very confused 
and erroneous account of the^e^athofOw^c^uJQr- He remarks on his repeated, 
escapes from the tower: — ^Some^say he found means to escape a second 
time, but being retaken, lost his head. Others say he was not beheaded till 
1460, upon being taken in battle fighting for the house of Lancaster. I don't 
know whether it be certain that Owen was put to death, but it may be affirmed 
that those who say it was in 1460 were guilty of an error, by taking Owen 
Tudor the third son for Owen Tudor the father." Sandford remarks on this 
passage, " it could not be his third son, for he was a monk in Westminster 
Abbey." Thus the only party in error was Rapin himself, as it was the 
elder OAven Tudor who suffered decapitation after the battle of Mortimer's 
Cross, in 1461, a year later than the above record, as correctly stated in 
our text. 

2. Among the historical items of these times the following are worthy of 
notice. The year 1437 was remarkable for the deaths of two queen dowagers 
of England : Joan of Navarre, widow of Henry IV., and Catherine of France, 
widow of Henry V. Joan died at Havering, in Essex, July 10th, and was 
(interred] by the side of her husband in Canterbury cathedral, "where her 
effigies are still to be seen." — Sand/. Geneal. p. 285, Hall, folio 134. 

3. Of one of the contemporaries and court^mDj^gnj of Catherine of France, 
we have the following curious account,"ffi6sT^smkingly illustrative of the _da.tfe 
age in which it occurred. The enemies of " the good duke Humphry," of Glou- 
cester, failing to injure him personally, determined to wound liim through his 
wife the duchess. Rapin states, on the authority of Hall — " by narrowly observ- 
ing what passed in his family they learnt that his duchess had frequent 
conferences with one Sir^Roger_ Bolinbroke, a priest, who was reckoned a ne- 
cromancer, and a certain, woman who was counted a witc h. This was suffi- 
cient to form a cBafgT'oFTSgh treason against her? "she was accused of 
making, with these two persons, the king's image in wax ; and that placing it 
before a gentle fire, she intended the king's strength should waste insensibly, 
as the wax melted, and his life be at an end when the image was all dissolved. 
By this accusation it was intended to show, the duchess's design was to destroy 
the king, that the crown might fall to the duke her husband. When the parties 
accused were examined, the priest denied all, but the duchess confessed she 
had desired the woman to make her a love potion for her spouse, icho sometimes 
went astray. Though this confession did not make her guilty of the crime laid 
to her charge, the priest was condemned to be hanged and the woman to be 
burnt alive. Their execution took place accordingly ; Sir Roger Bolinbroke 
was hanged and quartered, and the woman, one Margery Gurdemain of E3'e, 
was hn_rnt_jn Smi^hfi£ld^Octol^ei^27th. - 1441 . As for the duchess, though she 
would have been the most guilty, had the charge been well proved, out of a 
pretended regard for the duke, she was only condemned to do public penance in 
St. Raul's church, and to be imprisoned for life." So much for the wisdom and 
justice of " the good old times." 

4. Catherine had for her contemporaries in England and France, some of 
the most celebrated femalesTnat^ve*rSrTac!ed extraordinary parts on the great 
stage of history, in any age of the world. To begin with the least— Agnes Sorrel, 
the influential mistress of her royal brother Charles VII., and Mary of Anjou, 
his queen ; both of whom used the most praiseworthy efforts to rouse this 
lethargic prince from his inactivity, and excited his energies to battle with the 
invaders of his country. But above all Joan of Arc, the glory of France and 
the wonder of the world, who ultimately ctJnTJTRyreaTthe conquerors of her native 
land, and freed the soil of France from the presence of her invaders and 
usurping occupiers. While in England, Margaret of Anjou (Catherine's 
daugter-in-law), scarcely second to the French heroine in warlike achievements, 
while supporting the Lancastarian interests, against the pretensions of the 
house of York during the " wars of the roses," won imperishable fame. 



CATHERINE OF BERAIN, 

DAUGHTER AND HEIRESS OF TUDOR AB ROBERT VYCHAN OF 
BERAIN— WIDOW, FIRSTLY, OF SALUSBURY OF LLEWENNI ; 
SECONDLY, OF SIR RICHARD CLOUGH OF BACH T GRAIG ; 
THIRDLY, OF MAURICE WYNN OF GWYDIR— AND WIFE OF 
EDWARD THELWAL, ESQ., OF PLAS Y WARD. 

In addition to written record, this lady of many husbands 
has been ushered down to posterity, in all her Elizabethan 
grandeur of costume, by a fine painting of her likeness in 
Llewenni hall,* Denbighshire, and an excellent engraving 
from the same in Yorke's " Royal Tribes of Wales." The 
latter author calls her "a singular character," without 
giving any instance of her singularities, or referring his 
readers to any other authority. However, on turning to 
Pennant, the everlasting text-book to Tourists and note- 
book fillers on North Wales, we are more amply compensated, 
and found Yorke had derived from him all that he knew 
about the lady who is the subject of this memoir. 

In his notice of the paintings in Llewenni hall, Pennant 
says, " I must not omit the portrait of a lady exceedingly 
celebrated in this part of Wales, the famous Catherine 
JTudor . better known by the name of 'Catherine of Berain 
from her estate in the neighbourhood.'' She was the 
daughter and heiress of Tudor ab Robert Vvchan of Be- 
rain, and married successively four husbands. Notwiths- 
tanding Pennant's remark about her exceeding celebrity, 
which would imply the possession of genius, or the suc- 
cessful exertion of high talents, there appears nothing 
in her life to entitle her to fame or the homage of pos- 

* Pennant states, " her portrait is an excellent three quarters on wood." By 
the date, 1568, it seems to have been painted by Lucas de Heere, the only artist 
1 know of in that period equal to the performance. Edward Pugh, who pub- 
lished his " Cambria Depicta" about forty years after Pennant's time, says, " her 
picture, supposed to have been painted by Lucas de Heere, is now at Lleuesog, 
the residence of Mrs. Wynn's mother." 



CATHERINE OF BERAIN. 163 

terity. She is principally remarkable as a greatheiress 
of her time, for her marria ges with four men of rank 
and fortune, and for the i^fflkej^F^^ 
These became allied, according to their claims, to the most 
distinguished families of North Wales ; and Catherine of 
Berain, in reference to her exemplary obedience to the 
primitive command "increase and multiply," was called 
Mow^M^mrw, the mother of Wales. 

Her first marriageTwas with Salusbury, the wealthy heir 
of Llewenni, by whom she had two sons, the eldest of whom, 
Thomas Salusbury, brought heavy grief to his family for 
his unhappy fate. He was implicated in Babington's plot 
for the destruction of queen Elizabeth, and was executed 
as a traitor, on the 21st of September, 1587. Her se- 
cond son, Sir John Salusbury the strong, succeeded at 
Llewenni. Her estate of Berain in after time followed 
the heiress of the Llewenni house into the Combermere<~T 
family. " Tradition goes," says Pennant, " that at the 
funeral of her beloved spouse (her first husband) she was 
jed to ,.ch"rn,h .*>y Sir Richard Clough of Bach y Graig, and 
from church by Maurice Wynn of Gwydir, who whispered 
to her his wish of becoming her second husband. She 
refused him with great civility, informing him that she had 
accepted the proposals of Sir Richard in her way to church ; 
but assured him, that in case she performed the same sad 
duty (which she was then about) to the knight, he might 
depend on being her third." She kept her word most reli- 
giously, and on the death of Sir Richard Clough, she married 
Maurice Wynn of Gwydir. She was destined to outlive 
that worthy also. Pennant says, "as soon as she had com- 
posed this gentleman, to show that she had no superstition 
about the number three, she concluded with Edward Thelwal, 
Esq. (a widower), of Plas y ward, in Denbighshire, who 
became her fourth husband, and outlived Jher. By her 
second husband, Sir Richard Clough, Catherine had two 
daughters ; one married to Wynn of Melai, the other to 
Salusbury of Bach y Graig, whence is descended our inge- 
nious countrywoman Mrs. Piozzi. By Maurice Wynn she 
had one daughter, but no children by Edward Thelwal. 






164 CATHERINE OF BERAIN. 

The following account of the jntermarriages in this family 
are curious, and illustrative also of the selfish policy pursued 
in aristocratic families, with the view of keeping their 
fortunes among themselves, by causing such unseemly unions 
between kindred near in blood. " Her daughter, by Maurice 
Wynn of Gwydir, married Simon Thelwal the eldest son of 
her last husband by a former marriage. Simon Thelwal's son 
Edward married Sydney the daughter of William Wynn of 
Garthgynan, the fourth son of Sir John Wynn of Gwydir, 
the historian ; and their daughter and heiress married Sir 
William Williams of Llanvorda, the eldest son of the speaker 
of the House of Commons in the reign of king James II. 
Hence the connection with Sir John Wynn of Wynnstay, 
who was first cousin to Sidney, and who left his great pro- 
perty to Mr. Williams, her grandson, afterwards Sir Watkin 
Williams Wynn, the great grandfather of the present Sir 
Watkin Williams Wynn Catherine, as before observed, 
died in the lifetime of her fourth husband Thelwal, and 
was buried at Llan y vydd.* Edward Pugh, in his " Cam- 
bria Depicta," says — " from hence (Mr. Yorke, of Erthig's), 
after a walk of several miles across som e black and barren 
hills through Llan y vydd, I reached the abode of the beauti- 
fu jCatherine Tudor, called Berain house, a building of great 
solidity, but little elegance — assuming more the appearance 
of a monastic cell than a family residence.' ' He concludes 
his remarks — " but thus, alas ! after all her succession of vows 
poor Catherine herself met the common fate of mortals, and 
was interred at Llan y vydd.'' He might have added "where 
neither monument nor stone is found to record her name 
or merits." According to Pennant, she departed this life 
August 27th, and was buried on September 1st, 1591. "I 
was told that in the locket she wore attached to her gold 
chain was the hair of her s^cgniLaiid favourit^tmjjband, Sir 
Richard Clough of Bach y Graig." 

The following account, oftheaccomplishedandphilosophical 
Edward Thelwal, her fourth husband, the Welshman who 
could command his temper, as a lesson to posterity, is too 

* Pronounced Llan-y-veethe. 



CATHERINE OF BERAIN. 165 

valuable to be omitted ; especially as the record is from the 
pen and experience of that eminent worthy whom Yorke 
denominates "the historical, the philosophical, and right 
whimsical peer Edward Herbert, first Baron of Cherbury ; 
a man at once and together, the negociator, the scholar, 
statesman, soldier ; the genius and absurdity of his time and 
nation." 

"After I had attained the age of nine, during all which 
time I lived in my grandmother's house at Eyton, my 
parents thought fit to send me to some place where I might 
learn the Welsh tongue, as believing it necessary for me to 
treat with my friends and tenants who understood no other 
language. Whereupon I was recommended to Mr. Edward 
Thelwal of Plas y ward, in Denbighshire. This gentleman, 
I must remember with honour, as having of himself acquired 
the most exact knowledge of Greek, Latin, French, Italian, 
and Spanish, and all other learning, having for that purpose 
neither gone beyond seas, nor so much as had the benefit of 
any university. Besides he was of that rare temper in 
governing his choler, that I never saw him angry during 
the time of my stay there, and have heard the same of him 
many years before. When occasion of offence was given 
him, I have seen him redden in the face, and after remain 
for a time silent, but when he spake his words were so calm 
and gentle that I found he had digested his choler ; yet, I 
confess, I could never obtain that perfection, as being subject 
to passion and choler more than I ought, and generally, to 
speak my mind freely, sought rather to imitate those who, 
having fire within doors, chose rather to give it vent than 
suffer it to burn the house. I commend much more the 
manner of Mr. Thelwal; and certainly he that can forbear 
speaking for some while will remit much of his passion." 



\<elo 



CENAI THE VIRGIN, 



THE EIGHTEENTH DAUGHTEK OF BRYCHAN BRECHEINTOG. 



Cenai,* otherwise called Cenedlon, is a Welsh saint of 
considerable note. The church in Breconshire, called 
Llangenay, is dedicated to her — whence the parish and 
sainted well, near Crickhowell, of the same name. Theo- 
philus Jones, the Breconshire historian, gives the following 
account of her from the n oonkish chronicler Cressy . — " I 
shall make a short extract from the ponderous folio of this 
writer. She (St. Ceyna, so he. calls her) was of royal blood, 
being the daughter of BreganusV prince of Brecknockshire. 
When she came to ripe years many nobles sought her in 
in marriage, but she utterly refused that state, having conse- 
crated her virginity to our Lord by a perpetual vow ; for 
which she was ever after called Keyna the Virgin. At 
length she determined to forsake her country, and find out 
some desert place where she might give up her mind entirely 
to holy contemplation. Therefore directing her journey 
beyond_Severn, and there meeting a woody place, she made 
her request to the prince of that country that she might be 
permitted to serve God in that solitude. His answer was, 
that he was very willing to grant her request, but that the 
place did so^warin^jsdihus^xpejats that neither man nor 
beast could inhabit it. But she replied that her firm trust 
was in the name and assistance of almighty God to drive 
all that poisonous brood out of that region. Hereupon the 
place was granted to the holy virgin, who, prostrating 
herself before God, obtained of him to change the serpent s 
and vipers i nto stone s. And to this day the stones in that 
region do_ resemble the windings of serpents, through all 
the fields and vUlagesTas if they had been framed by the 

* Pronounced Kennay— the emphasis being on the first syllable. 



GENAI THE VIRGIN. 167 

nand of the sculptor." Camden, who notices this story in 
his account of Somersetshire, says that the place is now called 
Keynsham, between Bristol and Bath, where abundance of 
tnaT"fossil*, termed by the naturalists Corau .^mmonis, is 
frequently dug up. He is not quite an inliael7 though not 
perfectly convinced of the truth of the origin and cause of 
these petrifications of serpents, but calls them miracles o f 
sportingna ture. Jones adds, ** the idea of Nature's working 
or sporting a miracle, is certainly Camden's own ; though it 
must be admitted that the sports of Nature are sometimes 
most whimsical.' ' Camden expressed some degree of surprise 
at one which he saw dug up from a quarry near the place 
which he had been describing, " which/ ' says he, "repre- ' 
sented a serpent rolled up into a spire ; the head of it 
stuck out into the outward surface, and the end of the tayle . 
terminated in the centre." Cressy proceeds to tell us ./ 
on the authority of Capgrave, that " after many yeafs 
spent in this solitary place, and the fame of her sanctity 
every where divulged, and many oratories built by her, her 
nephew St. Cadoc* performing a pilgrimage to the mount 
of St. Michael, met there with his blessed aunt Keyna ; at 
whose sight, he being replenished with joy, and being desi- 
rous to bring her back to her own country — the inhabitants 
of that region would not permit him. But afterwards, by 
the admonition of an angel, the holy maid returned to the 
place of her nativity. There, on the top of a hillock, 
seated at the foot of a high mountain, she made a little 
habitation for herself; and by her prayers obtained a spring 
1&£T£jUUlQ^Qja^^ which, by the merits<oT~£Ke 

holy virgin, affordeth health to divers infirmities." In his 
account of tliepansnof Llangenney, Theophilus Jones 

* £MGP (properly Catwg), the son of ftwladys T Brychan Brecheiniog*s eldest 
daughter, was an eminent British ecclesiastic of the sixth century, entitled "the 
wise," and considered the Solomon of his age. He was abbot of Llancarvan, 
and became tutor to the celebrated bard Taliesi n. He is distinguished for being 
the first who made a collection of the proverbs,'maxims, and adages of the Welsh, 
augmented by Ms own compositions, all bearing the general title of " Diarkebion 
of Catwg," signifying the aphorisms of Catwg. This collection is to be found, both 
in Welsh and English, in that most excellent past-periodical the "Cambro-Briton," 
by the late John Humphry Parry. There are several churches in Wales dedi- 
cated to Catwg, they are called Llangattock, and his name has been inserted on 
the Boman roll of saints ; an evidence at least of his traditional reputation for 
sanctity. 



168 CENAI THE VIRGIN. 

says, u the situation of the original chapel or oratory, whether 
erected in her life time or consecrated after death to her 
V memory, is marked by the finding of a small bell used to call 
I the neighbouring audience to prayers." No vestige of any 
| walls appears ; but near this spot is Fynon Genau, or the well 
l of St. Cenai — the miraculous origin of which -we have just 
^•^ referred to. It was formerly celebrated for its medicinal 
virtues as most of the saints' w r e lls have been. Perhaps 
some of the sanctimonious votaries~of the ancient faith, who 
still venerate both the well and its patroness, may consider 
the following piece of jocularity by Jones, as little short of 
profanation. "But though this good lady's piety and chastity 
may have gained her the approbation of her country and the 
veneration of posterity, though this well at her intercessions 
may have produced health to the sick — and above all. though 
she may have inflexibly adhered to her vow of perpetual 
virginity, it should seem that she occasionally interfered too 
far in the domestic concerns of the marriage state, appa- 
rently from waggery or envy." For we learn from Carew's 
survey of Cornwall that St. Cenai, or as he writes it, St. 
Keyne's well, there, had this remarkable effect : that if a 
new married couple, or one of them approached, the fir st 
who drank of the water obtained the command of the house 
forjife. This author rotates, in indifferent verse,* a very 
humorous story about the well. A stranger being asked by 
a clown if he knew the effects of the water replied in the 
negative; being informed of them, and finding Hobbinol 
was married, asks — 

" ' You drank of the well, I warrant, betimes ?' 

He to the countryman said, 
But the countryman smiled as the stranger spoke, 

And sheepishly shook his head ; 
' I hasten'd as soon as the wedding was done, 

And left my wife in the porch, 
But she had been wiser i' faith than me, 

For she took a bottle to church.' " 

The present fabric of Llangenny church was probably not 
erected until the ancient oratory of St. Cenai was in ruins. 

* The doggrel ballad in question was bv no less a personage than the late 
Dr. Sou H l gJ F ." ' 



CENAI THE VIRGIN. 169 

It is built close to the river Grwyne, at the bottom of a cwrn 
or narrow deep valley. 

Saint Cenai is said to have departed this life on the 8th 
day of the ides of October, A.D. 490, and to have been 
buried in her own oratory by her nephew Cadoc. Sometime 
previous to her death we are informed she had a prospect 
of her eternal happiness in a future world in a vision — being 
ministered to, and comforted^bv^angels. To her nephew 
Cadoc she thus prophesied, " this is the place above all others 
beloved by me ; here my memory shall be perpetuated ; 
this place I will often visit in spirit, if it may be permitted 
me — and I am assured it shall be permitted me, because 
our Lord hath granted me this place as a certain in- 
heritance. The time will come when this place shall be 
inhabited by a sinful people which, notwithstanding, I will 
violently root out of this seat. My tombe shall lye a long time\ 
unknown, untill the coming of other people, whom by my^ 
prayers I shall bring hither ; them will I protect and defend, 
and in this place shall the name of the Lord be blessed for 
ever." These good strangers are not yet arrived, nor hasTJ 
the tomb of the saint been discovered ; but we must have S 
patience — who knows what time may bring to pass ? j/ 



^MAr^WAMTv^^ Jr0*>$y**&«** 



l"10 



CORDEILLA, 



DAUGHTEK OF LEIK, KING OF BKITAIN—WIFE AND WIDOW OF 
AGANIPPUS, ONE OF THE KINGS OF GAUL. 

Although this princess of legendary celebrity belongs 
to that era of ajjocr y pha l hij^ftgy called the fabulqus a ge s, 
yet, as the story ot J her supposed life is fraught with pathetic 
interest and noble sentiment, we trust its insertion here will 
be found both appropriate and desirable ; and as this ancient 
piece of biography is the fpundation^j e&jhat masterpiece of 
dramatic genius, Shaksgear V* Tragedy of King Lear," it wins 
additional interest and claims oTlnvestigation. To the ad- 
mirers of our great dramatist (viz., the whole civilized 
world except the fanatics and utilitarians), it will afford the 
gratification of comparing the slight and rude materials here 
presented, with the graceful and stupendous fabric raised 
by " the man of all time" to the immortal memory of king 

v \g & % Leir and his daughter Cordeilla. 

To avoid all suspicion of an ambitious attempt at deco- 

\~LiXj^ ration, we shall here put forth the quaint and fantastic 

version from the "Welsh Chronicles/' edited by Percy 

u *o* Enderbie, who, in„1661 J published a history of Wales (so 

\5 fJpy called !) entitled ^'Cambria Triumphans."* With the foppery, 
pedantry, and inflated affectation which generally disfigures 
the style of this learned Scot, we have no more to do than 
to bespeak the reader's patience and tolerance, as Hamlet 
endured the " gadfly" Osrick ; not for the manner, but the 
matter of his discourse. 

He commences by informing us " that Leir the son of 
Bladud began his reign in the year of the world's creation 
4333. ""This king was of a most noble and heroick mind, as 
being questionlesse bred under the discipline of those philo- 
sophers which his father had brought from Athens, besides 
a natural propension of his own to moral vertue ; insomuch 
that his kingdom flourished in great peace and abundance of 

* This most impudent fabrication of a false history of Wales, and the author's 
motives are fully exposed in our memoir oTtnTpnncess Nest, queen of Trahaern 
ab Caradoc. 



CORDEILLA. 17 1 

wealth." * * * (Here follows a tedious account of the 
cities built by king Leir, with heavy Latin quotations from 
Cambden and Matthew Paris, which in this, and other 
instances, as they do not relate to Cordeilla, we omit.) 

" King Leir beginning now to be aged and full of years, 
having no heir male,* he called unto him Gonorilla, Ragan, 
and Cordeilla, intending, out of the discovery of their love 
and filial affection and duty towards him, to settle his king- 
dome upon them. To the eldest he said, ' daughter, I shall 
desire you to expresse unto me how well and dearly you 
love and esteem me your aged father ;' the young lady 
hearing a question of so high a nature proposed unto her, 
first, that her answer may not seem forged, or to have any 
smack or relish of dissimulation, calls the immortal gods 
(being then the custome amongst pagans) and all the celes- 
tial powers to witnesse her assertion, and then replies — 
* my princely lord and father, I love you more than my own 
soul.' The feeble old man was much taken with this 
answer, resting satisfied that his daughter did cordially and 
entirely love him. He calls for the second, propounds the 
same question ; she thinking to outvie her eldest sister, and 
thereby to endear and engratiate herself into the old man's 
favour, spares no oaths or invocations and imprecations, 
assuring him ' that her tongue was too slender a messenger 
to deliver the depth of her affection and duty, and that she 
loved him far beyond all creatures.' Leir is tickled and 
exceedingly solaced 'with these two answers, and thinks 
no mortal man more happy in his children than himself. 
Cordeilla is called for ; the same interrogatory used : she 
wittily perceiving the deep dissimulation and fawning of 
her* sisters, replies — * my dearest father, I am much joyed 
to see you so well pleased with the expressive answers of 
my two sisters ; for my own part, as a father, I have ever 
honoured, obeyed, and loved you, and for ever shall ; and if 
you desire further expression from me, know honoured sir, 

* It may here be remarked this account does not agree with the Welsh P 

Triads, in which a chieftain of celebrity is mentioned named Bran ab Llyr, or ^S 

Bran the son of Lear ; and no notice occurs of the three daughters of that 4^ 

ancient British king who flourish in this chronicle. On the contrary, the only J 

daughter of Llyr, or Lear, recorded in the Welsh Triads is Bronwen, whose / 
memoir has had a place in this work. **& 
o 2 



l7'2 CORDEILLA. 

that as much as you deserve to be loved, so much I love 
you, and no more.' 

" King Leir being nothing pleased with the integrity of 
his third daughter's answer, obsequium amicos Veritas odium 
parit — bethinks himself how he may best dispose and bestow 
his two eldest daughters, to their most content, honour, and 
advancement. The eldest, therefore, he espouseth to the 
duke of Cornwall; the second to the duke of Albania, 
which is now called Scotland ; dividing his kingdome be- 
twixt them in reversion, and a moiety for their present 
maintenance and livelihood : nothing being left for the 
poor lady Cordeilla, whose tongue was the true embassador 
of her heart, and whose heart hated all dissimulation and 
hypocrisie. 

" Fame, who is nothing slow in reporting the transactions 
of eminent persons, especially kings, sounds this passage of 
king Leir in France, and with a shrill note echoes forth the 
beauty, modesty, virtue, and the adorning graces which wait 
upon Cordeilla. Aganippus (an eminent personage, and by 
some styled king of France through a great mistake, for as 
Policronicon, Petrus Pictaniensis, Robert Gag wine, Antonius 
Episcopus, and divers others affirm the name of France was 
not then known, neither were there any kings, the inha- 
bitants being called Galli, and tributaries to the Romans, 
and so continued till the time of Valentinianus the emperor) 
hearing Cordeilla's beauty so highly extolled, her vertue so 
superlatively commended, deems her a fit companion for his 
princely bed and fortunes — if so rare a jewel may be pur- 
chased. Upon a mature resolution he sends his agents to 
the court of king Leir, with full instructions to demand 
Cordeilla in marriage. The offered fortune pleaseth the 
king, yet he fears the success by reason of his own folly 
which had given all to the two sisters and left nothing for 
the third. Leir returns thanks to Aganippus by his embas- 
sadors, shews a willingness to comply with their master's 
request, and withall lays open his insufficiency to bestow 
any dowry upon her. 

" Aganippus, informed by letters of these passages, is glad 
his suit and motion finds friendly acceptance, and for 



CORDEILLA. 173 

valuing the rich endowments of his so much affected Cor- 
deilla, hefore all terrene* riches, |so he enjoy the beloved 
treasure of his heart, desires no more. The espousals are 
with all solemnity celebrated, and Cordeilla anlwerable to 
the greatnesse of her birth and quality conveyed to Aga- 
nippus, who (by the opinion of those who write that France 
was governed by twelve kings) was one, and so Cordeilla a 
queen. 

"Leir having thus happily, as might be thought, disposed 
of his three daughters, being aged, betakes himself to ease 
and quietness, and so intends to spin out the remnant of his 
time: but his sons-in-law Monaghlanus and Henninus, the 
dukes of Cornwall and Albania, envy the happy tranquility 
of the feeble old king, and each daughter, for all their deep 
and large expressions of filial love and duty, patrls inquirit 
in annos : Leir lives too long, too much at ease, his bones 
would better become a sepulchre than a throne, and since 
the fatal sisters will not of their own accord cut his thread 
of life, his daughters, by the hands of their ambitious and 
covetous husbands will undertake that task. 

" Nothing is now heard in Brittaine but the clashing of 
arms, neighing ©f horses, thundering of trumpets and war- 
like musick. The impotent king is begirt on all sides with 
martial troops, and not able to resist two such powerfull 
enemies, to preserve that small span of life, is forced to flie 
for succour, being quite forlorn, to his daughter Cordeilla, 
whom formerly he had so much slighted. The arrival of 
the father is not long unknowne to the daughter who 
acquaints her husband with the sad occurrence. Aganippus, 
out of a heroic spirit compassionating the calamity of a 
distressed prince, 'especially his wife's father, puts on a 
resolution to chastise and revenge so gross an injury, and 
re-invest him in his throne again. Cordeilla is not idle in 
meantime, but with all obsequious behaviour, like a dutifull 
childe, cherisheth her drooping father, accommodates him 
with all princely provision, and with pleasant speeches 
drives away his melancholy thoughts, and leaves nothing 
undone or said which may add vigour and alacrity to his 

* Earthly. 



1 74 CORDEILLA. 

pierced heart. Aganippus arrives in Brittaine with his 

father-in-law, gives battel to the disobedient rebels, gives 

them the overthrow, and again establisheth king Leir in his 

regal dignify. But the author of so great happinesse lived 

not long after, leaving Cordeilla a sad and disconsolate 

widow. 

M King Leir once more holding and guiding the stern of the 

British monarchy, passed his time with perfect quietness 

the space of three years ; after which time he left this 

transitory world, leaving his daughter Cordeilla, as well she 

deserved, to succeed him in his kingdome. His body was 

buried at Leicester in a vault under the river side which he 

himself had built, and consecrated to Janus Bifrons. 
********* 

" Cordeilla (this heroine lady), after just revenge taken 
upon her two sister's husbands, and her father and husband's 
death, by the consent of most writers, by the joint suffrages 
and votes of the Brittains, was admitted to the royal sceptre, 
in the year from the world's creation four thousand three 
hundred and ninety eight years. She governed her people 
and subjects for the space of five years with great applause 
and general liking. But the two sons of her sisters, Mor- 
gan of Albania, and Cunedagius of Cambria and Cornwall, 
envying her prosperity and thinking themselves injured in 
their birthright, their grandfather Leir having divided the 
kingdom equally betwixt their mothers upon their mar- 
riages, conspire together, and mustering their forces, invade 
Cordeilla, and reduce her to that necessity that she is taken 
prisoner, and by her merciless nephews cast into gaoL 
This turn of hard fortune she patiently endured awhile; 
but perceiving no hopes to regain her freedom and repossess 
her kingdome, scorning to be any longer a slave to her 
insulting enemies — seeing she could not free her body from 
bondage — with true Trajan and masculine heroick spirit, 
she makes a divorce between her purer soul and encaged 
carcass, giving it free power to pass into another world, 
leaving those parts which participated of drossic mold, to 
be interred again in the earth, from whence at first it came, 
at Leicester, in the temple of Janus, by the sepulchre of 
her father.'* 



^ 



CLAUDIA, OR GWLADYS RUFFINA. 



As the life of this illustrious lady involves so much of the 
history of the introduction of Christianity into Britain, we 
may be pardoned for necessarily dilating on that eventful 
circumstance. It was about A.D. 52, while St. Paul was a 
prisoner at Rome that the celebrated British chieftain, called 
in his own language Caradoc, and in the Latin Caractacus, 
arrived also at the capital of the world. This brave Silurian 
prince, who had perseveringly opposed the Roman arms for 
nine years, after being betrayed by the infamous Cartis- 
mandua, and previously defeated by Ostorius Scapula, the 
commander of the Roman forces in Britain, ultimately was 
destined, with his family, to grace the triumph of Claudius 
over the subjugated Britons. His noble bearing and spi- 
rited address while delivering his celebrated speech before 
the emperor, and perhaps the ignoble manner in which the 
Roman arms triumphed over him, through the treachery of 
a rival sovereign, seems to have wrought powerfully in his 
favour on the mind of Claudius. The clemency of the 
emperor ordained that his chains should be knocked off, and 
the heinous offence of supporting the independence of his 
country against invaders pardoned. But when he and a 
portion of his family returned to Britain, hisjfather, B ran ab 
LJyr, remained in Rome seven years a hostage for his 
future conduct. It has not been settled by our antiquaries 
or historians whether Claudia, or Gwladys Ruffina, cele- 
brated for her beauty in Martial's " Epigram,'* and noticed in 
St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy, was the sister or the daughter 
of Caractacus, but it is generally supposed the latter. 

Hughes, in his " Horse Britannicae," observes on this period 
of history — "the state of Britain during the reign of Clau- 
dius and of Nero attracted the attention of the whole 
Roman empire ; and the intercourse between the new pro- 
vince and the seat of government was daily increasing in 



176 CLAUDIA. 

importance. In that state of things St. Paul was brought 
to Rome a prisoner ; famed, even before his coming, as an 
abettor of a new religion. As the apostle was permitted 
to live in his own apartments, although guarded as a captive, 
he received all those who chose to resort to him for infor- 
mation and instruction ; and hereby the purpose of divine 
providence, with respect to the spread of Christianity through 
the world, was promoted. In that great capital persons of 
different ranks, employments, and offices might be found; 
ambassadors, captive princes, merchants, and mechanics. 
Several of these would be prompted by curiosity to make 
inquiries respecting Paul, the principal teacher and propa- 
gator of the religion of him who was condemned by Pilate 
to the cross.'* On the arrival of Caractacus and his family 
at Rome Hughes remarks— "St. Paul could not continue 
unacquainted with these transactions ; nor was it possible 
for a mind like his to feel indifferent to events that regarded 
the happiness or misery of mankind by deciding the fate of 
nations. The subjugation of the island of Britain by the 
Romans would be regarded by the apostle as likely to ter- 
minate in the good of that country. That by means of the 
British captives returning home to their native land, where 
they had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the 
christians and their religion, the knowledge of Christianity 
might be conveyed to our island is no improbable con- 
jecture. Pious soldiers in the Roman army, as well as 
officers, civil or military, must also become instruments of 
diffusing the same divine knowledge in Britain, as well as 
in other parts of the empire where they were stationed. 

It is therefore reasonable to suppose that, by means of the 
family of Caractacus returning to Britain, the gospel might 
have been introduced among their countrymen. That what 
we here suppose was so in reality, we are assured from 
faithful documents long preserved, though in obscurity, and 
therefore not to be despised because not blazoned abroad in 
the world like most of the monkish fictions. In those 
historical notices, handed down to us in the form of Triads, 
we have some account of the blessed event of which we are 
speaking. 



CLAUDIA. 177 

After quoting the well-known Triads and other autho- 
rities bearing on the question of the christian religion 
having been brought into Britain by the agency of Bran 
ab Llyr, father of Caractacus, Hughes comes to the imme- 
diate subject of our memoir, the claims of the lady Claudia, 
or Gwladys Ruffina, to be considered the first British 
christian. 

Another circumstance has been noticed by archbishop 
Usher, and before him by bishop Goodwin. St. Paul, in his 
second Epistle to Timothy, makes mention of Linus, Pudens, 
and Claudia ; Linus is supposed to be the same as the first 
bishop of Rome of that name. Pudens and Claudia are 
thought to be the same persons on whom the poet Martial 
composed his epigrams. Martial's Claudia was undoubtedly 
a British lady, as appears by the poet's enconium upon the 
graces~bf her person, the honour of which he seems to envy 
her native isle — 

" Claudia cseruleis, cum sit Ruffina Britannis 

Edita, cur Latiae pectoed plebis habet ? 
Quale decus formse ? Romanum credere matres 

Italides possunt, Attides esse suas, &c." 

This handsome compliment of the jtoma n poet, paid to our 
British b eauty, is thus imitated by theRevT*Peter Roberts — 

" If Claudia's of the wood-stain'd British race 
Whence is that lovely form, that heavenly face ? 
Why does the Roman and the Grecian dame 
Dispute her birth, and urge a jealous claim ? 
Thus blest ye Gods, still bless the happy pair, 
And make their offspring your peculiar care ; 
j Her love, his only ; mutual be their will, 

) Ai O* ■^ nd may ber sons her latest ^i 8 * 1 fulfil." 
^Thackeraj, whose new work on British church history we 
have rererred to under the head of " Boadicea," translates 
Martial's epigram more literally — 



\ 



" Claudia, of azure-painted Britons born, 

What Latian wit and Latian grace adorn ! 

Such forms might Rome among her daughters place, 

And Attic matrons deem of Attic race. 



From another epigram,* by the same poet, it appears that 



* Martial, Lib. IV., Epi. 13. 



178 CLAUDIA. 

Claudia was ultimately married to the Roman named Pudens, 
before referred to ; it is thus translated by Thackeray — 

" Rufus ! Pudens, whom I own my friend, 
Has ta'en the foreign Claudia for his wife ; 

Propitious Hymen, light thy torch, and send 
Long years of bliss to their united life." 

Thackeray considers Claudia Roman born, but of British 
parents, who were then living in the " eternal city" as 
hostages. He thus concludes his remarks — "under these 
circumstances, we may, I think, consider this Pudens, and 
this Claudia, the same with the persons of those names 
mentioned by St. Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy, 
* Eubuleth greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and all the 
brethren.' 

The following observations, by Hughes , are both argu- 
mentative and decisive of the question at issue : — " Some 
have thought that the very name of this lady indicates her 
British origin ; and they argue that her name, in the 
language of her country, would be Gwlady s Ruffyth. But 
was this lady then the same with the Claudia of St. Paul 
as our antiquaries have argued ? it is observedtotmsTlffiat 
Martial flourished in the reign of Trajan ; to obviate which, 
it may be said, that the poet in his youthful days composed 
the epigrams on Linus, Pudens, and Claudia. On the same 
ground we shall not object to Claudia being the daughter 
of Caractacus. After the decision of the learned Usher in 
this case it - would not be decorous to dispute the point ; 
and it follows that Claudia was the first n ative Briton who 
embraced Christianity; that by her means the restof her 
family were converted; and that these, in company with 
certain other disciples of St. Paul, were the instruments of 
planting the tree of life in Britain.* 

* In addition to Claudia we have two other ladies in this work, who were 
not only contemporaries, but of similar tastes, convictions, and aspirations : 
namely, Pomponia Grascine, wife of Aulus Plautius, first Roman governor of 
Britain, who was tried for her life on account of her attachment to Christianity 
and abandonment of the gods of Rome ; and a Roman lady named Tecla, also 
one of the converts of St. Paul. She sbecame yery famous in Britain for the 
sanctity of her life ; and to her are dedicated those churches called Llandegley, 
in various parts of the principality of 'Wales. J These three memoir§** um.y -"ti e 
advantageously read in connection with each cjiher. 






7T 



DEETHGEE.* 

The parentage of this lady of the fourteenth century is 
unknown, but from certain allusions in*a poem addressed to 
her, by her illustrions lover, it appears she was of lowly rank, 
and humbly descended. Deethgee is one of thos^fcir ones 
immortalized by the the muse of the celebrated Davyth ab 
GwJJyjn. To her praise be it added, she was as modest as 
beautiful, and appears to have r ejected the sui t and denied 
her company to a wooer whose lays and principles savoured 
too strongly of liber tinism. That poet's biographer re- 
marks, "whatever may have been the inconstancy of Davy th 
ab Gwilym in his general conduct towards the fair sex, he 
appears in two instances to have entertained a sincere and 
honourable passion — the object of which, under the names 
of Deethgee and Morvyth, he has celebrated in some of his 
choicest effusions. But, in both cases, the result was equally 
unpropitious, though in different ways, to the hopes he had 
indulged. The fair one first-named, who is represented by 
the bard as endowed with every grace both of body and 
mind, seems to have proved inaccessible to all the overtures 
of his heart, enforced as they were by all the fascinations 
of his muse.f However gratified she may have been by the 
offerings of the bard, she seems to have paid no attention to 
the adoration of the lover." 

The following are extracts from the translation of Arthur 
James Johnes, Esq., barrister at law, the last biographer and 
editor of the poems of Davyth ab Gwilym : — 

" Thou dear, perfect Deethgee — thou lamp of my heart ! 
That rulest my thoughts with thy wiles and thy art : 
I am none of your lovers who gravely revere 
Ev'ry nobly-born damsel as stiff as a spear. 

* In Welsh writtenU)yddgulbut pronounced as above, the g being sounded 
as in give, geer, gain,d ^ » —^ 

t The poems, addressed to Deethgee, now extant are seven in number, from 
No. 14 to 20 inclusive iu the original Welsh. 

P 



180 DEETHGEE. 



I leave the mad squirrel to clamber and climb 
'Mid brushwood, and brambles, and branches sublime ; 
The squirrel may scramble so high up the tree 
That he cannot come down— but no climbing for me ! 
I leave the rash sailor the ocean to sweep, 
With a puny iuch plank between him and the deep ; 
Let him rove till he tires o'er his perilous track, 
A proverb of luck if he ever comes back. 
The archer who aims at the target his blow, 
Flings the dust from his arrow, the dust from his bow; 
And rarely he poises his arrow in vain, 
If he aim but aright — if he shoot but with pain. 
But, poor bard ! if one maiden but fall to his lot 
In a thousand — alas, 'tis a more random shot! . 
Thou girl with the eyebrow so auburn and thin, 
Thrice happy the man who thy beauty shall win ; 
Thou wilt not be mine for abundance of song— 
I know that thou wilt not — while thou art yet young : 
But still I despair not, enchantress divine! 
When nobody'll have thee, thou then shalt be mine." 



C* 



In another poem he asks the roebuck to be his love-envoy 
to Deethgee, telling him he has nothing to fear from the 
hounds of the " tall baron ;" that if they pursue him he may 
hide himself in the fern. He adds, that if he carries the 
love letter safe to Deethgee he will be rewarded. The fol- 
lowing is a literal translation of a portion of this curious 
poem : — 

" No hand shall flay thee ; thou shalt live in health and joy; 

Thy skin shall not be possessed by an old Saxon ; 

Nor shall thy horns or thy hoofs 

Fall to the lot of false Eithig.* 

Thou shalt be preserved against treachery, 

With the strength 01 the arm of Cyhelyn.f 

I will ever welcome thee, 

Should I live to an old age — thou ! 

With horns like Eglantine." 

But the most curious of all the poems addressed by the 
bard is the poem in which he invites her to a feast in the House 
of Leaves, namely, a bower in the grove, or forest. The 
viands with which he proposed to treat his lady-love were to 
be the nightingale's song, the sparkling mead, and the ena- 

* Jealousy— a name applied by the bards to their rivals, 
t An ancient Welsh hero. 



DEETHGEE. 181 

moured bard's caresses. Perhaps, deeming such fare too 
poetic, or too dangerous, the prudent Deethgee denied her 
presence on this occasion. Finding his suit unavailing, the 
poet appears to have given up the point, and with laudable 
philosophy transferred both his affections and the labours of 
his muse to another object, by whom they were more readily 
received. This was the celebrated Morvyth, a lady who, 
however pre-eminent in attractions, seems to have been far 
less fastidious than the modest and cautious fair one of our 
memoir. Deethgee's gentle tastes and retiring manners, 
evinced in her rejection of a lover whose principles were 
but too questionable, deserve the meed of applause. And 
however they may have doomed her to future obscurity, she 
doubtless met the reward of her virtues in the esteem and 
admiration of those better spirits, who are capable of pre- 
ferring unostentatious goodness in the seclusions of life to 
the false glare of assumption and recklessness. 

We shall conclude this scanty biographical notice by the 
insertion of the celebrated " House of Leaves" poem, before 
referred to, as translated by Arthur James Johnes, Esq. : — 

" Maid of dark and glossy tresses,* 
Humbly I request, 
In D61 Aer^on'st green recesses, 
Thee to be my guest 
At a feast— but not of food — 
Fit for a husbandman's repast, 
Or for Saxonf— -comrade rude ! 
Not of flesh that might supply 
Nuptial festivity : 
Not of mingled wheat and rye, 
Meat to break a reaper's fast : 
On no other sweets we'll feed 
Than the nightingale and mead ! 

In that room above thy head, 
Birchen boughs their shelter spread — 



* There appears some confusion in the description of this beauty ; in ano- 
ther poem he says " thou girl with the eyebrow so auburn and thin." 

( t Aeron is a river in Cardiganshire; D61 Aeron, or Dol yr Aeron, implies a 
\neadow on the bank of Aeron. 

% Gluttony is a vice generally ascribed to the English of those days, who 
were termed Saxons by their Welsh neighbours. 



182 DEETHGEE. 

Beauteous spot of fairest ground 

For the deer to range around, 

For grey philomel's clear wail, 

And the thrush's wild, merry tale. 
There nine trees together stand, 

Mid the woods foh, lovely hand !) 

Twined into a bright retreat 

For the birds of heaven to meet, 

Forming round our leafy seat 

On the earth a circle fair — 

A green steeple in the air — 

And below a glorious hall, 

Made of golden trefoils all. 

Noble arbour — verdant nook — 

For the maid of modest look ; 

House by bright, clear waters piled- 
Waters ne'er by smoke defiled, 

Place of ecstacy and song, 

Of tall trees and tangled ground ; 

There the ousels rear their young, 

There a fortress may be found — 
^ Verdant turrets that enclose 

wbfe Faithful lovers from their foes ! 
5^ Wilt thou then, or wilt thou not, 

Visit me in that blest spot ? 

For thyself thou must declare, 

Come— thou must— and meet me there." 

But come she did not — and in consequence of her refusal, 
it seems, there ended their intercourse, as this was his last 
poem addressed to this prudent beauty. 



/«3 



EMMA DOLBEN, 



WIFE OF THE REV. DR. HUGH WILLIAMS, RECTOR OF LLAN- 
TRISANT, ANGLESEA, AND ANCESTRESS OF NUMEROUS 
GREAT FAMILIES IN NORTH WALES. 



This lady, like Catherine Tudor of Berain, lives in her 
descendants more than in her own proper person"; and fo" 
those wTTo feel an interest in the origin of certain great 
families of North Wales, the little that is to be gleaned about 
her will doubtless be very acceptable. While on his pro- 
fessional tour, like Dr. Syntax, in search of the picturesque, 
at Penrhos, in Anglesea, " the agreeable seat of Lady 
Stanley,'' Edward Pugh, author and illustrator of " Cambria 
Depicta," collected the following account of her : — 

'•Lady Stanley has now in her possession a portrait of 
Emma Dolben, her great grandmother, of which the an- 
nexed plate is a faithful copy.* This lady was daughter of 
John Dolben, of Caegwnnion, near Denbigh, Esq., from the 
same origin as Dr. David Dolben, bishop of Bangor, in 1631, 
and Sir William Dolben, Bart., late M.P. for Oxford. She 
married, about 1650, the Rev. Hugh Williams, D.D., rector 
of Llantrisant and Llanrhyddlad in Anglesea, second son 
of William Williams, of Chwaen Isav and Nautanog, in 
the same county, Esq. By this lady (not less remarkable 
for her worth and accomplishments, than for the rank, afflu- 
ence, and respectability of her numerous descendants) Dr. 
Williams had issue, Sir William Williams, solicitor general 
and speaker of the House of Commons in 1684, ancestor of 
Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart. Sir John Williams, of 
Bodlewyddan, Bart, and the late Watkin Williams, of 
Penbedw, Esq., M.P., for the borough of Flint, and Emma, 

* She appears a handsome, stately, taper-waisted, grandly attired lad}', 
worthy of her illustrious position. Vide Pugh's Cambria Depicta, p. 62. 
p 2 



184 EMMA DOLBEN. 

the lady of Sir Arthur Owen, Bart., ancestor of Sir Hugh 
Owen of Orielton and Bodowen, Bart. The Viscount Bul- 
keley is also fifth in descent from Emma Dolben, by Emma, 
the wife of William Roberts, of Caerau, Esq., and in the same 
degree Holland Griffith, of Carreg-lwyd, Esq., by Emma, 
daughter of John Owen, of Penrhos, Esq., great grandfather 
to Lady Stanley." The last named gentleman was buried 
in the church of Holyhead, in which the inscription on his 
tomb appears to be the only thing remarkable. It runs 
thus. " In memory of John Owen, of Penrhos, Esq., a 
person, who having never travelled for education beyond 
the circuit of his native island — yet, by the singular felicity 
of his genius, attained to such accomplishments as to be its 
greatest delight and ornament, for wit ; its chief oracle, 
for civil prudence ; a stranger to few parts of useful learn- 
ing ; and that which excelled all, a great pattern of unaf- 
fected piety — died at the age of eighty-four, 1712." 

Thus it is undeniable that Emma Dolben, or rather Mrs. 
Hugh Williams, is more than commonly honoured in the 
number and high respectability of her far-spreading de- 
scendants.* 

* One of her sons, as before-mentioned, was the talented and witty Sir 
William Williams, who so reputably filled high ofiices in the state. While yet 
a noteless, if not a briefless barrister, he paid his adresses to the daughter 
of a man of rank and fortune. On being questioned by him as to his pos- 
sessions and pretensions to ally himself so honourably, he replied — " I have 
a gown, a wig, and a tongue !" The gallant inference was understood and 
accepted. This bold barrister successively won the lady — the honour of 
knighthood at the hand of his sovereign— the solicitor-generalship and the 
speakership of the House of Commons, in the reign of James II. 



/SS" 



DOLLY OF PENTREATH. 



Dolly Pentrea.th, a woman of the humbler walks of life, 
is celebrated in QornjaL annals as* the last of the Britons 
in that county who spoke thejCcornjlshJanguage, and for 
the great age at which she arrived before her death. Her 
surname, Pentreath, which is a corruption of the British or 
Welsh word Pentraeth, must have been derived from the 
place of her residence, and properly written in pure Welsh 
would have been Dolly o'Ben y traeth, and in English Dolly 
of Strand-head. 

The following brief notice of this last animated relic of 
the Cornish Britons, we transcribe from that beautiful and | 
most interesting work " Qyrus Redding' s Illustrated Iti 
nerary of the County of Cornwall," whefe^sne T¥*inci 
Hentally introduced in a dissertation on the decline and § 
extinction of the British language in that county. 

" In the deathof a lan guage there is something painfully 
striking — as being the medium through which, for perished 
ages, perished generations of men communicated alike wants 
the most trivial, or the thoughts that wander through eter- 
nity* There are ™ JY Wltff4 books in the Cornish tongue. 
Dr. Moreman, of Menheniot, in tB^w»igD„.pf Henry VIII., 
was the first who taught his parishioners the " Lord's Prayer" 
in English. In 1640, at Feock, near Truro, the sacrament 
was administered in Cornish, and the Rev. Mr, Robinson, 
near the Lizard Point, preached in Cornish in 1768. In 
1700 , the language was still spoken bv the tinners and fish- 
~peopTe"bf St.' Just' and the western side of Mount's Bay. 
Borlase said that, in 1758, it had ceased to be spoken ; but, 



'->. 



\. 



* This touching reflection, written in a pure style of sublime simplicity, 
cannot but come home, doubly charged with pathetic reference, to the bosom of 
every Welchraan or Celt — descendant as he is of the earliest colonisers of 
Europe— and whose language, notwithstanding every effort made or making \\ \£. 
for its support or revival, is aJ§o^_on ihe eve of ex t in ctipji. To the utilitarian*, 
whose creed and mental aspirations favour nothing but progress, this, of course, 
is " a consummation devoutly to be wished ;" but to the philosopher, or profound 
meditator on the wreck of nations and the general mutability of human affairs, 
not the less interesting, or intensely affecting — however deeply he may parti- 
cipate in warm wishes for the success of progression, and ardently desire the 
removal of every prejudice that proves a stumbling-block in the way of ad- 
vancement. 



186 DOLLY OF PENTREATH. 

ten years after that, two old women of Mousehole under- 
stood, according to Daines Barrington, what was said by a 
neighbour called Dolly Pentreath, than whom they were 
ten or twelve years younger. This woman, commonly 
reputed the last who could speak Cornish, was in her 
eighty-seventh year in 1773, but would frequently walk 
three miles out and home'the same morning. One William 
Bodener, in ^776, could w rite both Cornish and English ; 
and he stated that four or five others then'^Wea^wTTo could 
speak the language. John Nancarrow, of Marazion, learned 
the language in his youth. Mr. Polwhele says, that this 
William Bodener, of Mousehole, was many years younger 
than Dolly Pentreath, and used to converse with her. He 
died in 1794, and left two sons, but neither knew enough of 
the language to converse in it." Thus it seems he survived 
her six years, by which he deprived this heroine of popular 
tradition of a portion of her peculiar laurels ; as Dolly 
Pentreath is recorded to have died J _in_l778, at the great age 
of one hundred and two years. Our author continues, " she 
was buried very humbly, in St. Paul's churchyard, near 
Penzance, where some ignorant writers have given her both 
a tomb and an epitaph." Mr. Tompson, an engineer of 
Truro, who had made the old Cornish language his study, 
wrote the following epitaph upon Dolly, which he circu- 
lated among his friends — hence the tale of a tombstone that 
never honoured her remains : — 

Old Doll Pentreath, one hundred aged and two, 
Deceas'd and buried in Paul parish too, — 

Not in the church with people great an high, 
But in the churchyard doth old Dolly lie."* 

The work from which we have quoted this account, 
among its numerous interesting engravings, is embellished 
with a characteristic likeness of Dolly Pentreath, " from a 
drawing made by an inhabitant of Penzance, who died about 
the close of the last century." 

* For the amusement of those who may take pleasure in comparing the 
original with the Cambro British, we subjoin the Cornish version of this 
epitaph, which runs thus :— *»^ 

"Coth Doll Pentreath cans ha deau; ^ 

Marow ha kledyz ed Paul pleu 

Na ed an eglos, gan pobel bras, 

Bes ed eglos-hay, coth Dolly es 



•J> 



ELYN DONE, OR ELLEN DWN, 

DAUGHTER OF SIR JOHN DONE OF UTKINTON, IN CHESHIRE— A 
MAID, TWICE A WIFE, AND_A WIDOW THE SAME DAY. 

Additionally to the interest connected with the strange 
details of this lady's life, this well authenticated narrative 
cannot fail to excite the curiosity of all readers, when they 
are informed that it is the^p resumed- or igjiDgft on which Sir 
Walter Scott founded his admirable ballad of The Young 
LogfliaxARL In whatever degree of approval Hie general 
reader may regard that beautiful production, we cannot con- 
ceive that the eminent author of it would have lost a single 
leaf of his superabundant laurel wreath, had he done Wales 
the justice of acknowledging the foundation on which he has 
reared so elegant a superstructure. But so it is; these 
Welsh incidents have been Scolgi^^, without the slightest 
reference to their Ca^jrianorigin. 

The principal interest oftfTis ; memoir, notwithstanding, 
lies in the ma tter- of-fajgj^omap^e of this extraordinary 
story ; wherein the transactions of the entire life of its heroine 
are compressed into the adventures of a_single jday ; yet in 
that eventful day was enfranchised such subtile essence, as 
in the hands of a capable artist, has frequently expanded 
into the five long acts of the drama, or the three ample 
volumes of the modern romance or novel. 

Elyn Done, the lady of this memoir, was the daughter of 
Sir John Done, and resided with her parents at Utkinton, in 
the co^t^jDfChgs£er. Her affections had been won by a 
Welsh gentleman named David Myddelton, but her parents 
were strongly opposed to their union, and determined on 
having her married to her cousin Richard Done, of Croten, 
in their own immediate neighbourhood. This relative, how- 
ever, Elyn held in absolute aversion — repulsed his advances, 
refused his offered hand and heart, ultimately denied her 
presence to him, and made no secret of her partiality for his 
rival David Myddelton. 

To understand the secret spring of the hostility mani- 
fested by the parents of Ellen to the honourable match with 
Myddelton, it will be necessary to take the following parti- 



18S ELYN DONE, OR ELLEN DWN. 

culars into consideration. Although residing in England, 
and aiming to be considered as English, it appears that this 
family was originally Welsh — that following the bias of 
their taste or policy, they had crossed the river Dee, and 
settled within the English territories. Like many others of 
their countrymen, finding their fortunes thriving there 
under more favouring influences than in the land of their 
birth, they finally made themselves English subjects, and 
Anglofied their family name of Dwn into Done — in later 
times usually written D unn . Thus, according to the policy 
which guided their actions, to give their daughter in mar- 
riage to a native of the country they had abandoned and 
repudiated, appeared to them as a retrograde movement 
highly reprehensible and opposed to their English partia- 
lities and interests. Without this explanation their rejection 
of a person so highly respectable as David Myddelton for a 
son-in-law would appear unaccountable. But it appears 
they neither considered his identity with the elevated family 
of the Myddeltons of Chirk Castle, his descent from the 
ancient tribe of Ririd Vlaidd, nor the high office which he 
held under the reigning sovereign Edward IV., of sufficient 
weight to alter their resolution of marrying their daughter 
to their kinsman Richard Done of Croten. These were the 
high days of paternal tyranny T when those absolute autho- 
rities were impressed with the most extreme notions of their 
own divine rights in the disposal of the hands, hearts, and 
fortunes of their offspring — and of the obligation of passive 
obedience on the part of those children, to whom they 
assigned whatever partners that suited with their policy, 
caprice, or a prior arrangement, formed often during the 
very infancy of the parties principally concerned. The 
heroism or audacity of the mind had not yet conceived the 
heresy of doubting, much less of questioning this "right 
divine." Even the suffering subjects of the tyrannical 
system stood self-condemned, and in their deliberative moods 
concluded their reluctance to obedience to be criminal ; and 
in their superstitious awe, yielded to the most unreasonable 
decrees, more as repentant criminals than the victims of the 
most degrading and mind-enslaving rigour. From this state 



ELYN DONE, OR ELLEN DWN. 189 

of culpability, the milder minds, harrassed to imbecility, 
were soon persuaded by those perpetual panders to erratic 
authority, the priesthood, their spiritual guides, who alone 
possessed the talisman of tranquilizing disturbed nerves, as 
well as consciences, by the imposing necromancy (for the 
the imposture deserves no better term) of absolution, ob- 
tained only by obedience. 

Repulsed by the parents of Elyn, David Myddelton rarely 
beheld his beloved mistress — and, when he did so, it was 
only at a distance while vigilantly guarded during her de- 
votions at church. However, it would seem, he consoled 
himself with a firm-rooted conviction of possessing her 
entire affections. With this assurance, to avoid compro- 
mising her domestic peace, it is probable he avoided making 
a too conspicuous display of his presence, and with manly 
patience waited the eventful births of time, doubtless, look- 
ing anxiously for the period, when with her own consent he 
should forcibly remove her from the paternal dwelling and 
protection into his own. That time, so long looked for, at 
length came, but attended with circumstances more terrible 
than ever could have been anticipated by either of the par- 
ties who stood as principals in the adventure. 

It is very probable that Sir John and his lady, availing 
themselves of every circumstance tending to work on their 
daughter's mind, to bend it to their views, might instance to 
her the infrequency of her lover's appearance at the church 
as a proof of his waning affection, a presumption that he 
held her in light regard, and the probability that he had 
abandoned all further thoughts of her. Discovering the 
effect of such an insinuation as touching her woman's pride 
at fancying herself slighted, or held over cheap, nothing 
could be more natural than that they should seize the op- 
portunity thus presented of extorting from her a promise, 
that unless he appeared there to claim h ^^^^i£!ii^ 
that she should consent to give up^aTTfurther tnlmgnts of 
him, and marry her cousin Richard Done of Croten. That, 
yielding for a moment to the bitter thought of his faith- 
lessness, unconscious of, or forgetting at the same time, the 
generous motives that induced him to forego his devotional 



190 ELYN DONE, OR ELLEN DWN. 

visits, and to absent himself so long — and forgetting also 
the distance of his home, at the castle of Denbigh, in the 
vale of Clewyd, from her own on the English side of the 
river Dee, it is by no means improbable that Elyn, in her 
transient resentment, and in the hope of obtaining a tem- 
porary peace from the incessant persecution of her family, 
might be induced to yield such a conditional promise — little 
thinking that it was within the compass of possible events 
that she would ever be called upon to ratify this compact by 
an absolute fulfilment. 

Greatly alarmed, and intensely troubled on reflection, at 
the consequence of her weakness, a strong conviction of her 
peril flashed across her mind, as the insidiousness of the 
insinuations which had betrayed her into such unfounded 
fears, and the consequent advantage taken of her, the mo- 
ment she became ensnared in the meshes of her circum- 
venters, the thought of extricating herself succeeded her 
first convulsive emotions. She soon decided on a resolute 
attempt to rescue herself from the consequence of her im- 
prudence, by sending off a secret and well-instructed mes- 
senger to Denbigh castle to inform Myddelton of her 
dangerous position, emphatically impressing her conviction 
that her stern parents would enforce the conditions of her 
fata Lprom ise the moment that time and inauspicious cir- 
cumstances placed it in their power. 

Most unfortunately David Myddelton was absent when 
Elyn's messenger arrived at Denbigh, and several days 
elapsed before he was found. At length, however, the 
astounding intelligence reached him that not a moment was 
to be lost or the beloved mistress of his heart would be 
estranged to him for ever. 

Distressed beyond measure at the details of the trusty 
messenger, the unhappy young man could well conceive 
in what manner her ungenerous parents had put such evil 
constructions on his self-denying, prolonged absence, and 
the momentary doubt of his truth which betrayed Elyn 
into her grievous mistake. He could mentally see how 
their incessant entreaties, threats, and other importunities, 
had driven the poor girl into a reluctant confused consent to 



ELYN DONE, OR ELLEN DWN. 19 L 

abandon him — and his active fears suggested that at that 
very moment they might be enforcing the forfeited con- 
ditions — for, he remembered with agony, this was the fatal 
morning fixed for the marriage of Elyn with her hated cousin 
—and that the belated morning was so far advanced, that to 
arrive at Utkinton in time to rescue her was next to impos- 
sible. Rendered desperate with such convictions, and stung 
with self-reproach for not having foreseen and anticipated 
those evils, and prevented the possibility of the event he 
dreaded, he was now for flying to her rescue. 

Ever more ready for action than deliberate reflection 
David Myddelton immediately decided on the course to 
pursue, and rapidly commenced putting his intentions into 
execution. He raised the most resolute of his friends, whose 
homes were nearest his own, and each being well armed with 
goodly weapons and mailed breast plates— and mounted on 
strong, fleet, and vigorous steeds, off rode the resolute ca- 
valcade, to the number of a couple of dozen, with the fiery 
lord of Denbigh at their head. 

In the meantime poor Elyn's state of mind was troubled 
in the extreme. With renewed confidence she believed to 
the last that the timely arrival of her favoured lover would 
save her from the extremity she dreaded, and put an end to 
her peril and misery by a sudden transition from despond- 
ence to the height of mortal felicity. Guarded in her cham- 
ber, and strictly watched, she spent those feverish, miserable 
hours in gazing from her lattice, while daylight lasted, for 
the sight of some being to relieve her hopes — and in the 
darkness of the night listened so intently for some indicating 
sound of a strange arrival, that the beating of her own heart, 
in the wildness of her imagination, was exaggerated into the 
ttaraiB&iiLi^ -^ ut ' as f hese delusions 

vanished, it was with heart-crushing anguish she beheld, 
unrelieved, the arrival of the bridal morning, and with it 
the detested bridegroom and his party, whom she was com- 
pelled to accompany to the altar, while in her frantic despair 
she wished every moment the last of her existence. 

With all the incredible exertions of David Myddelton and 
his friends to reach Utkinton in time to frustrate the 

Q 



192 ELYN DONE, OR ELLEN DWN. 

schemes of his enemies, unfortunately, from the lateness of 
the intelligence he had received, he utterly failed to get 
there till he heard, with the utmost consternation, that the 
bridal party had been in church a considerable time, Al- 
most frantic on discovering this state of things, while his 
followers kept in their saddles wandering what would be his 
next movement, he was seen to spring from his horse and 
pace to and fro in violent agitation. Before he had taken 
many turns he was roused by the merry peals of the "mar- 
riage bells," while the wedding party were seen issuing from 
the porch of the church, preceded by the bride and bride- 
groom. No sooner were his eyes fixed on the melancholy 
bride, mechanically holding by the arm of the smirking, 
insignificant-looking Richard Done, who strutted forward in 
all the triumphant pride of a bridegroom, than he turned 
deadly pale ; but, all at once, as if suddenly possessed of the 
maddened spirit of a raging demon, the impetuous blood of 
the race of Riridj£jajdd* seemed boiling in his veins. His 
sword was in hisgrasp/aTid seen flying from its scabbard as 
he rushed on the unhappy bridegroom, and rapid as the. 
lightning flash thrusfr him „_ through the heart. While the 
astounded guests and witnesses of the* wedding seemed 
petrified at this tragic catastrophe, David Myddelton whisked 
off the now widowed bride towards his party, who, with 
their drawn swords, closed around them ; he lifted her on 
his horse, and vigorously sprung into the saddle before her. 
In the greatest excitement David voiciferated the energetic 
monosyllable *' on !" and, taking the lead himself, in an in- 
stant the whole party were in a violent gallop on their 
homeward course. Dashing their horses into the river Dee, 
they urged them forward, at the peril of being carried away 
by the rapidity of the powerful stream — yet, fortunately, 
imitating the caution intermingled with the daring of their 
leader, they waded and swam the sagacious, sure-footed 
animals, and got every one safe over without a single failure. 
Now secure within their native Cambrian, territory, in brief 
space they were gently riding up the vale of Clewyd, where, 
at the abbey of Denbigh, Elyn became again espoused — but 
at this time in ties more enduring than those of the morning 
* Ririd Vlaidd signifies the bloody wolf. 



ELYN DONE, OR ELLEN DWN. 193 

wedding. Thus was the gentle daughter of Sir John Done, 
in one brief day — the most terrible, if not the happiest of 
her existence, a maid, a bride, a widow, and again a wife. 

As the principal object, for the satisfaction of the public, 
Is to establish the authenticity of the above incidents, it 
behoves us to produce our vouchers — which, though liable 
to the charge of repetition, we shall render in our text, 
Instead of the general mode of casting such valuable docu- 
ments into the notes or the appendix. Be it known then, 
that the world, including the illustrious author of '« The 
Young Lochinvar" and the present biographer, originally 
stand indebted to the researches of the indefatigable Pennant 
for the story of this wild abduction — thus given in his 
41 North Wales Tours :"— 

41 In rummaging over the papers of this house (the house 
of Gwaenynog, the respectable family seat of the Middel- 
tons)* I met with an anecdote of it too singular to be 
suppressed. It will prove, at least, that private morals and 
respect to the laws were, in that distant jperiod, but in a 
very low state, for no notice seems/to be taken of so atrocious 
an offence. The criminal enjoyedv the favour of the crown 
in common with others of its peacetol-stibjects. 

** David Mydde lton»_who is styled Receiver of Denbigh 
in the 19th of Edward IV., and Valechis Coronas l)ni Regis 
in the 2nd of Richard III., made his addresses to Elyn, 
daughter of Sir John Done of Utkinton, in Cheshire, and 
gained the lady's affections, but the parents preferred their, 
relation Richard Done, of Croten. The marriage was 
accordingly celebrated, which David having notice of, 
watched the groom leading his bride out of church, killed 
him on the spot, and then carried her away his mistress and 
married her the same day, so that she was a maid, widow, 
and twice a wife, in one day."f 

* Situated near Denbigh, in the vale of Clewyd. ^\ 

(f Pennanfyhere adds, "from Roger, the eldest son of this marriage, descended^ 
the Myddeltons of Gwaenynog." This author incidentally states what cannot 
but prove singularly interesting as a more general feature in Celtic character- 
istics than was generally known. \' I mention Thomas Myddelton, another of 
his progeny, only to prove that the ^j^KUPft, .thftj nsh ho wl, or Scotch cora- 
nich, was in use among us (the Welsh) ; for we are told he was buried « cum 
magno dolore et clamore cognatorum et propinquorum omnium.' "^ 



DRWYNWEN, 

FIFTH DAUGHTER OF BRYCHAN BRECHEINTOG, WIFE OF CYN- 
VARCH-OER, AND MOTHER OF URIEN RHEGED. 

Drwynwen (white nose), the fifth daughter of Brychan, 
became the wife of Cynvareh-oer (Kynvarch the cold) ; 
he was the son of Meirchion cul-galed (Meirchion the 
slender and hardy), a chieftain of the North of England. 
Many of the sisters of this lady became the mothers either of 
martyrs, saints, or founders of monastic establishments, in 
the primitive days of British Christianity. But, in contra- 
distinction to them, Drwynwen gave birth to a wonderful 
boy* who in the course of time won the fame of a hero 
and became the munificent patron of the greatest bards on 
record — no less a personage than the celebrated Urien 
Rheged; and his twin-sister, the beautiful Eirddil. He 
flourished about the year 560. Urien was of high celebrity, 
in the court of king Arthur, as a most valiant and courteous 
knight. He gained the surname of Rheged, from the small 
northern kingdom to which he was elected as sovereign, 
which in after time was called Gwlad y Cymric, then 
Cumbria — and latterly Cumberland. Many notices may 
be found of him in "Evans's Specimens of Welsh Poetry," as 
well as in the British Triads ; he was the most famous of 
all the kings of Cumbria, being the Urbgen of the additions 
to Ne,nnius ; and in his court flourished the three great 
poets Aneurin, Taliesin, and Llywarch-hen. The second, 
in noems that are still extant, enumerates twelve pitched 
Ies fought by Urien ; that of Argoed Llwyvain, or 
rood, is particularly described, it was fought with 
Bjjlamddwyn, or flame-bearer, as, for his destructive mode of 
Warfare, the Britons called Ida, the first king of Northum- 
berland."* 

* Ttaeophilus Jonea. 









DWYNWEN, 

THE TWENTY-SIXTH AND YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF BEYCHAN. 

" Dwynwen,* the youngest daughter of Brychan, accord - 
djpg, to the.,MJ§«-i" the British Museum, though omitted 
by Llewelyn Ofeiriad, was a saint of such celebrity that the 
shade of Davyth ab GwilymTfrowning while I hesitate, 
imperiously requires me to notice her, as some atonement 
for the silence of Llewelyn the priest. A church, from her 
called" Llanddwyn, was built and dedicated to this saint, in 
the Isle of Anglesea, in the year 590. She has been called 
the Wftjsh Vp.niyi 7 or goddess of love. The amatory poet 
of Wales, Davyth ab Gwilym, addresses her, "holy Dwyn- 
wen, prodjpsa o f love , daughter of Brychan." He has also 
poem or invocation to Dwynwen, a translation of which is 
inserted in " Jones's Reliques of the Welsh Bards." HerJ) 
shrine was much resorted to by desponding swains and love- 4, 
sick maidens of olden times, who entreated her propitious / 
smiles, and solicited her intercessions and good offices with/ 
the objects of their affections. 

** These garlands, ever green, and ever fair, 
•With vows were offered, and with solemn pray'r, 
A thousand altars in temple smoked ; 
£A thousand bleeding hearts her power invok'd.'y 

We leave to future commentators the task of reconciling 
these mixtures of heathen and christian rites and references, 
nor envy them their laurels — having merely transcribed 
these notices from the pages of Theophilus Jones's " History 
of the Town and County of Brecon." 



* The meaning of this name is rather curious — Dwyn signifies to carry, to 
bear, also to steal— and wen white. Thus the name implies that she was the 
bearer off, or stealer, of the palm of fairness. 



Q 2 



\(\ip 



ELEANOR DE, MONTFORD, 

QUEEN OF PRINCE LLEWELYN AB GRIFFITH, THE LAST NATIVE 
SOVEREIGN OF THE WELSH. 



Eleanor de Montford, niece to King Henry III,* and 
daughter of that powerful nobleman and great soldier Simon 
de Montford, earl of Leicester, had been betrothed to 
prince Llewelyn ab Griffith at an early age. Although 
Llewelyn became most passionately attached to her, yet it 
would seem that he had also consulted his own interest in 
allying himself to the family of this potent English baron. 
Simon de Montford was one of the most astonishing charac- 
ters of the age. When the violent conduct of Henry and 
his ministers had driven many of the English barons into 
open revolt, he was unanimously chosen for their general ; 
and well did he justify their election. In the year_12^^ 
and the forty -seventh of the reign of Henry III., he won 
the battle of Lewes, when the fortune of war threw that 
monarch and his son Edward (afterwards the celebrated 
King Edward I.) prisoners into his power. Although his- 
tory has sufficiently blazoned the ultimate successes and 
triumphs of Edward, so disastrous to his foes and glorious 
to himself, yet the records of his nation testify that there 
was a time when he shared his father's disgrace, as the beaten 
in the field and humbled captive of the earl of Leicester. 
Doubtless it was a humiliating epoch in their lives, when 
the subdued sovereign and his haughty son were paraded 
through the land, as pageants of state, to suit the triumph 
of a rebel subject — and at the same time compelled to sanc- 
tion by their presence the proceedings of their conqueror, 
who in reality had overthrown the power of his prince. But 

* Her father Simon de Montford espoused Eleanor, dowager of William earl 
of Pembroke, and sister to Henry the third. Matthew Paris, p. 314. 



> ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 197 

% 

great as was the power of de Montford, this order of things 
was not to last. Warrington says, " Sir Roger Mortimer, 
and the other lords engaged in the royal cause, expecting to 
be attacked by Simon de Montford, had broken down the 
bridge of Worcester and having destroyed the ferryboats 
on the Severn, they encamped on the opposite banks of the 
river. These precautions prevented the earl of Leicester 
from penetrating farther than Worcester. The entrance 
into the country was soon opened by Llewelyn, his friend 
and ally — who, by a sudden inroad upon the English borders, 
diverted the attention and weakened the operations of the 
lords of the marches. The confederate army, under the 
command of the two leaders (de Montford and Llewelyn) 
having left prince Edward a prisoner in the city of Hereford, 
ravaged the estates of Sir Roger Mortimer, and taking the 
castles of Hay and Ludlow, proceeded to Montgomery. An 
admonitory bull was issued by Ottobani, the pope's legate, to 
the Welsh prince, requiring him to restore the castles which 
he had taken, and to withdraw from the confederacy. This 
mandate did not produce the desired effect. The lords of 
the marches therefore yielding to a superior force, and desi- 
rous of obtaining the liberty of prince Edward, submitted to 
the earl of Leicester. They agreed to surrender to him 
their estates and their castles, and to relinquish the realm 
for one year. Soon after this treaty, in the year 1265, a 
general peace was concluded between Llewelyn and the earl 
of Leicester with the king and lords of the marches, at a 
conference which they held for that purpose at Hereford." 

We have drawn thus largely on general history merely to 
show under what circumstances the earl of Leicester sought 
a lasting alliance with Llewelyn, to be cemented by a matri- 
monial union between his daughter and the prince of Wales ; 
wherein we must again cite the authority of Warrington, 
who has well availed himself of the lights cast on these tran- 
sactions by the chroniclers of the times. 

"Dissatisfied, no doubt, with the late peace, prince Ed- 
ward, who since his captivity had resided in the English 
court in Hereford, escaped out of the power of the earl of 
Leicester. The young prince was instantly joined by the 



198 ELEANOR DE MONTTORD. 

lords of the marches, who, recovering the possession of their 
own fortresses, made themselves masters of the country be- 
tween Hereford and Chester. By a sudden and rapid move- 
ment of the enemy Leicester found himself surrounded by 
different bodies of troops. In this situation he had no other 
resource than to throw himself into the arms of Llewelyn." 

It is to be observed that while Simon de Montford was 
ostensibly fighting in the king's name against that monarch's 
enemies, having Henry, with his court, the captives of his 
camp, to verify his proceedings, he was in reality fighting 
his own and confederates' battles against the king's ministers 
and their partizans. Much in the manner that in a later age 
the audacious Bolingbroke treated the imbecile Richard II., 
the bold and wily Leicester bore himself towards Henry ; 
with loyalty on his lip and determination in his heart to 
brave his resentment, and compel him to the course which 
he had marked out for him to follow. With a full under- 
standing of the earl's position, and the personal peril in which 
he then stood, Llewelyn dexterously treated with him as if 
he were the king's authorized and chosen official. The 
prince of Wales "resolving to make every advantage of the 
present conjuncture, demanded, as the only condition of 
affording him protection, a full restitution to the inheritance 
and dignity of his ancestors. Under the sanction of the 
king's name, the sovereignty of Wales was restored to 
Llewelyn, with the homage of all the Welsh barons ; he 
received a grant also of the lordship of Whittington, and the 
hundred Elesmere, with the castles of Hay, Hawarden, and 
Montgomery."* 

These were the bright days of Llewelyn's existence. At 
the same time that he was admiring the youthful graces of 
the lady Eleanor, he had the supreme gratification of hearing 
her father's applause for the very able manner in which he 
had conducted his own affairs — and afforded to him, the 
efficient aid of arms in his dark hour of adversity. He had 
the proud satisfaction to hear, from the stern and haughty 
de Montford, a desire to strengthen their present union ; 

* Warrington. 



ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 199 

and to render their future friendship indissolubly lasting, he 
received from him the offer of the hand of his daughter. 
Such an offer, under circumstances so flattering, of course 
was rapturously accepted by the prince of Wales ; and being 
then too young for marriage, Eleanor was formally betrothed 
to him accordingly. 

Strange reverses followed soon after. From the very 
height crowned with the sunshine of good fortune, both the 
earl of Leicester and the prince of Wales had to endure a 
sudden descent, rapid as unforeseen, into the gulph of gloom 
and disaster. To dilate circumstantially on the historical 
events which subsequently took place, is no part of our plan 
further than relates to the fortunes of Eleanor de Montford. 
The release of king Henry, by the successful effort of his 
son and adherents, was followed by the reverses of the earl 
of Leicester; and although again succoured by Llewelyn, 
his inauspicious star seemed to gain the ascendant. To 
crown the evil fortune of Llewelyn and his bethrothed with 
tenfold darkness, in that same year (1265), the war-worn, 
spirit-crushed Simon de Montford departed this life ; to the 
joy of his enemies, and the irreparable loss of his friends. 
On the death of her father, Eleanor de Montford was sent to 
join her mother and brother, and to finish her education at 
a nunnery in France. Without dwelling on the momentous 
public events which followed, we may summarily notice the 
submission of the malcontent barons to king Henry, and 
the union of all parties against Llewelyn, to punish him for 
the assistance which he had rendered to Simon de Montford. 
Although he necessarily suffered, the prince survived the 
storm, and by the mediation of Ottobani, the pope's legate, 
obtained peace on fairer terms than could have been expected. 
The death of his old antagonist Henry III. took place 
in 1273 ; but he found a more relentless and determined 
adversary in his son who succeeded. The commencement 
of the reign of Edward I. was marked by the unfriendly bear- 
ing of that monarch towards Llewelyn ab Griffith, manifested 
by vexatious and irritating demands of his personal pre- 
sence to do him homage as his superior lord ; at the same 
time refusing the prince the customary hostages for his secu- 



200 ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 

rity.* This insolent and barefaced denial justified Llewelyn 
in his refusal to quit his dominions and to risk his safety in 
the territories of a monarch so hostile to him. 

" This refusal was rendered still more disagreeable to 
Edward, as he was likely to be deprived of another fruit of 
vassalage ; for Llewelyn seemed at this time determined to 
solemnize his marriage with Eleanor de Montford, though he 
had not obtained the king's consent. The pope likewise 
appeared so sensible of the justice of his plea that he inhi- 
bited the archbishop of Canterbury from issuing any papal 
censure against Llewelyn. When the nature of his situation 
is considered, the caution of the Welsh prince was justified 
upon the principle of self-preservation. In the bosoms of 
the two princes, jealousy and hatred had long mingled with 
the love of glory and the desire of dominion : David and 
Roderic, the younger brothers of the prince of Wales, were 
entertained in the court of England : many Welsh chieftains 
also, who had fled from the justice of their country, were 
under the protection of Edward — and, influenced by every 
motive of hope and despair, must have been anxious to pro- 
mote the destruction of their sovereign. Llewelyn, like- 
wise, too well remembered the fate of his father Griffith,*} - 
to place any confidence in the protection or honour of the 
English. He surely then, when interest and hatred con- 
spired his ruin, would have been guilty of folly and rashness 
in the extreme, if he had hazarded a life, of such importance 
to his country, on no better security than the courteous 
ideas of the age, or the fluctuating principles of political 
integrity."! 

After this, Llewelyn was successively summoned to 
Shrewsbury, and to appear before the parliament sitting at 
Westminster, to do homage to Edward, with which demands 
he refused compliance on the same grounds which he had 
heretofore alleged. Edward summoned him next to do him 

* The pledges which Llewelyn demanded were Edmund, the king's brother, 
the earl of Gloucester, and the chief justice of England. 

t For the particulars of which, see Memoirs of the Princess Sinai in this 
work. 

$. Warrington. 



ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 201 

homage at Chester, which, with three other similar demands, 
met the like rejection. To justify these refusals still more 
to the clergy and to the world, Llewelyn sent a memorial,* by 
the abbots of Conway and Strata Florida, to be delivered 
into the hands of the archbishops of York and Canterbury, 
and of other bishops who were then assembled in convocation. 
There is a native simplicity which runs through the whole 
of this memorial, reciting his grievances, and justifying his 
conduct, which pleads more ably the cause of the Welsh 
prince than could have been effected by the exercise of the 
finest talents. 

The tenor of Edward's conduct with respect to Llewelyn 
did not delude the segacity of that prince. He saw that a 
blow was meditating by the English king, which, though 
suspended for a time, would be the more severe, and would 
fall with greater weight upon his country, from the coolness, 
the delay, and increasing power of that firm and ever 
prudent monarch. 

Llewelyn, therefore, thought it prudent at this time, to 
fulfil an engagement which he had formerly made ; and to 
enter into an alliance with a family which might yield him 
support against the formidable power of his rival. In the 
course of the late war (as before related) he had been be- 
trothed to Eleanor, the daughter of Simom de Montford, 
and cousin to king Edward. On the death of her father the 
young lady had retired into the monastery of Montargis, in 
France. In this court her mother, the countess of Leicester, 
and her brother, the heir of the family, lived in great splen- 
dour. The adherents of the house of Montford were still 
powerful in England, and the fame of the English monarch 
had made him the object of jealousy with the French king. 
To unite the views of the two parties in support of his interest, 
which happily coincided with his ardent affection for the 
lady Eleanor, now matured into womanly beauty, the prince 
of Wales demanded of the king of France the daughter of 
the late earl of Leicester. Philip, with much facility grant- 
ed his request ; and Llewelyn waited with impatient expect- 
ation of his bride. But the pleasing ideas which the pros- 
* See appendix, No. II, to Warrington's history of Wales. 



202 ELEANOR DE MONTF0RD. 

pect of his approaching nuptials afforded to Llewelyn, were 
on a sudden embittered by disappointment, and lost in the 
ruder avocations of war. 

Eearly in the year 1296, the young lady, who was cousin 
to the English king, attended by her brother Amaury, a 
clergyman, set sail for the coast of Wales, to solemnize her 
marriage with Llewelyn ; but near the Isle of Scilly, she had 
the misfortuue to be taken prisioner by four ships from the 
port of Bristol, and was conveyed to the court of England. 
Instead of yielding up this lady into the hands of her lover, 
which the ideas of the age might have suggested, and which 
prudence too, as well as the laws of chivalry demanded, she 
was detained in the English court, in an honourable atten- 
dance on the queen. Her brother, likewise, was kept in con- 
finement many years in the castles of Corfe and Sherburn ; 
nor did he at length obtain his liberty, until demanded by 
the pope as his chaplain — and after he had taken an oath 
that he would relinquish the realm and never be concerned 
in any commotion in the kingdom. 

After so decisive a conduct as the detention of Eleanor de 
Montford, all lenient measures, and the arts of expediency 
were weak, delusive, and fruitless. Edward now determined 
to exert every effort, which his power and his talents 
afforded, to obtain what had long been the object of his am- 
bition or policy, the entire conquest of Wales. Before 
measures were taken to carry this design into execution, the 
archbishop of Canterbury, with other prelates and lords of 
the realm, desired Edward, that as the last expedient, he 
would afford to Llewelyn one other opportunity of acknow- 
ledging the sovereignty of England, and of yielding to its 
orders unconditional obedience. With this design, the arch- 
deacon of Canterbury was sent into Wales, with an injunc- 
tion to the Welsh prince, that he should appear in the En- 
glish court, and should there perform the customary duties 
of a vassal. But at this time Llewelyn was in arms, and 
had ravaged the English borders ; resenting the late conduct 
of Edward, and alive to the feelings of an injured prince, 
deeply wounded by the captivity of his much loved Eleanor.* 
* Warrington. 



ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 203 

Still consistent in his conduct, Llewelyn, however, sent 
letters to Edward consenting that he would come either 
to Montgomery or Oswestry to perform his homage, pro- 
vided a safe conduct was allowed him, under the sanction 
of the archbishop and the archdeacon of Canterbury, the 
bishop of Winton, and five other English lord3. In return 
for which acknowledgment of superiority, the prince of 
Wales demanded that the king should abide by the articles 
of peace which had been concluded between Henry III. 
and himself. And that he should liberate and deliver into 
his hands Eleanor de Montford, the lady to whom he was 
contracted, as well as her retinue— all of whom, he asserted, 
had been detained in custody contrary to the faith of nations. 

The high pitch of overbearing insolence at which the 
English nation had arrived, in their treatment of Wales, 
may be conceived from the circumstance that "these just 
and simple demands," as Warrington designates them, 
should have excited in the parliament a general indignation. 
Edward however had gained his point in justifying his 
proceedings to his people, so as to gain their acquiescence 
to the uncompromising war which he meditated ; for a fair 
adjustment of his differences with Llewelyn was no part 
of his object. The parliament and the clergy united to 
supply their sovereign with money to crush his neighbouring 
prince, and the pope put a final seal to the general enmity, 
by excommunicating the prince of Wales, and laying his 
dominions under an interdict. 

The great scale on which Edward had made his military 
arrangements for the coming conflict proves his deter- 
mination never to recede from his fixed resolution of an 
entire subjugation of the principality of Wales. " In the 
late negoeiation the prince of Wales had offered to the 
English king a large sum of money as a ransom for Eleanor 
de Montford. Edward, on his part, refused to restore her, 
unless the Welsh prince would reinstate the former pro- 
prietors in the possession of those estates which he had 
lately taken from them, and would also repair the castles 
he had demolished. However ardent his desire of obtaining 
the lady might be a sense of the duty which he owed his 



04 ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 

country prevailed, and Llewelyn rejected the proposal with 
disdain. Upon which the two princes proceeded in their 
preparations for war."* 

The immense disproportion between the means in the 
hands of Edward and of Llewelyn might give a discerning 
eye the anticipated result of this unequal conflict. While 
the ranks of the English king were hourly swelled by the 
arrival of fresh powers, from the continent, from Scotland 
and Ireland, in addition to his own military vassals, the 
prince of Wales, without an ally, had the mortification to 
witness the defection of many of his own countrymen; it 
was at this critical time that Rhys ab Meredith, titulary 
lord of South Wales, and other chiefs of that country, 
abandoned the cause of Llewelyn and consented to hold 
their lands of Edward. While the one was elated with 
his favourable prospects, it naturally follows that the other 
was depressed from opposite causes. Doubtless these 
unhappy presages weighed heavily on the mind of the 
Welsh prince, and disabled him from pursuing, with his 
wonted foresight and alacrity, the necessary precautions 
for the support of a great army. Like his predecessors, 
the Cambrian sovereigns of past times, Llewelyn fatally put 
his trust in the natural strength of his mountain barriers, 
deeming the fastnesses of Snowdon sufficient protection 
against the mightiest power that could confront him. But 
there was one enemy which he had overlooked, and against 
whom he had made no preparation — that dire enemy of 
armed multitudes, famine. The events to be expected 
speedily came to pass. " The prospect which opened to 
Llewelyn upon the mountains of Snowdon was dreary and 
desolate. His enemies were masters of the country below, 
and seemed determined, by their perseverance, to starve 
him into submission. The island of Anglesea, his usual 
resource for provisions, was then possessed by the English. 
No diversion could be made in his favour in South Wales, 
or in England, as the former country had lately submitted 
to Edward's authority ; and in the latter, the adherents of 

* Warrington. 



ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 205 

the house of Montford were satisfied by having their for- 
feited estates restored. The distress of Llewelyn was 
heightened still more by the prospect of an immediate 
famine. 

"Thus surrounded by dangers, he had no better alternative 
than to throw himself on the mercy of the English king. 
A magnanimous prince like Llewelyn, the freedom of his 
country being lost, would scarcely have wished to survive 
its ruin — if the sufferings of his people, crowding around 
him and perishing by famine, had not claimed his pity, 
and inclined him to hazard his own . interests and personal 
safety from a tender regard to theirs. It is possible, too, 
the Welsh prince might hope that, in the event of some 
future day, he might again rise upon the wheel of fortune. 
In this state of affairs the prince of Wales sent to propose 
an accommodation with the king of England. There was 
little generosity or pity to be expected in the tenms which 
would be offered by Edward."* 

The galling stipulations on which Llewelyn and his com- 
patriots were relieved from present destruction, by want of 
the sustenance of existence, has been sufficiently shown 
and commented on in our national history, nor is it neces- 
sary to repeat them here. A ruined prince in the lowest 
abyss of despair, surrounded by many of the weaker sex, 
craving for the word that will give bread to their perishing 
young, could have but little disposition to remonstrate with 
an armed enemy of known remorselessness, who menaces 
him with immediate destruction unless he will embrace 
whatever terms he may choose to offer. Such being the 
position of Llewelyn, the most spirit-crushing advantage 
was taken of it by his adversary, by which he was reduced 
to dependence and degradation, accompanied by morti- 
fications of the most painful description. 

A peace, such as it was, followed ! Edward entered 
London triumphantly, with Llewelyn in his train to do him 
the long-claimed homage. The rigorous and insupportable 
terms of this semblance of a peace proved the king of 

* Warrington. 



206 ELEANOR DB MONTFORD. 

England's determination to annex Wales to his dominions 
on the death of the prince of Wales ; hut he imagined there 
stood in his way the popular delusions said to be entertained 
by the Welsh, that king Arthur was yet alive, and destined to 
reslore to them their ancient independence. To dissipate 
these superstitious ideas (if ever they were entertained), 
the English king, with his queen, court, and parliament, 
took up their residence at Glastonbury, and had the bones 
of the ancient Silurian hero disinterred and publicly ex- 
posed. With the barbarous view of insulting the sovereign of 
Wales, Llewelyn was summoned to appear, and witness 
this act of sacrilegious folly ; but notwithstanding his 
adverse fortunes, and perilous position in offending the king 
of England, the prince of Wales had the spirit to deny his 
presence on the occasion. 

** It is easy to conceive that Edward, alive to his inter- 
ests, and jealous of his power, would be eager to check the 
contumacy of a vassal in Llewelyn's situation. To enforce 
his obedience, the king, attended by his queen, repaired to 
Worcester, from whence he sent an order to the Welsh 
prince to appear at his court, and to account for his late 
conduct. The rigour of this summons was softened by an 
invitation to a royal feast which was to be held in that 
city — with an assurance, too, that he should be treated with 
honour, and that the lovely Eleanor de Montford should be 
the reward of his obedience. There was a decision in this 
mandate which love would not suffer him to evade nor 
prudence to disobey, and which soon brought Llewelyn 
to the English court."* The greatest of modern warriors 
has asserted, that to yield to the force of circumstances, 
the inevitable decrees of fate, is no stain on the fame of the 
war-worsted hero. If that be admitted in any case, Lle- 
welyn stands excused to posterity for the humiliating 
homage which history records that he rendered to Edward 
on this occasion, which smoothed his path towards the pos- 
session of the long-sought lady of his love. 

" Having now succeeded in his views, and as he thought, 
having rendered Llewelyn docile in the duties of vassalage, 

* Warrington. 



ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 207 

Edward gave him back the hostages which he had lately 
received; and also delivered up to him Eleanor de Mont- 
ford, with the estate which had been the property of her 
father. The marriage was celebrated on the 13th of Oc- 
tober, in the year 1278, the expense of which was defrayed 
by Edward; and as a farther mark of his favour, the cere- 
mony was graced by the presence of the king himself and 
his queen." 

With what disgust must the conduct of Edward be 
viewed, for the ungenerous exaction recorded of him by 
the historian, in the passage following. Such was the 
ungraciousness of his nature that he could not help dropping 
poison into the sweet cup of nuptial benediction — and 
spreading gloom and mistrust on the day hallowed even 
among the humblest of mankind, and dedicated to unal- 
loyed happiness, as the brightest in human life. But history 
itself shall give the loathsome statement. 

" On the very day that the marriage was to be solemnized, 
and in consequence, as Llewelyn and his bride were going 
to hear mass, the English king required of that prince that 
he should enter into a covenant never to protect any person 
whatever contrary to his pleasure The rigid sentiments 
of duty, put to so severe a trial, were too weak to subdue in 
the bosom of the Welsh prince the feelings of nature. 
Alive to love and its keen sensibilities, and in fear, no doubt, 
for his liberty or life^ the firmness of the gallant Llewelyn 
sunk under their influence. The enamoured prince, besides 
conceding to other requisitions, signed a covenant, which 
loosened every tie of confidence, and which might in future 
give up to the resentment, or to the interested views of 
Edward, the most faithful adherent to his interests. It is 
only from a motive of personal dislike, for it could not have 
arisen from any just principle of policy, that we are able 
to account for the insult which was offered to Llewelyn — in 
detaining this lady so long in the English court, and im- 
peding the views of honourable love. In these traits of 
Edward's character we see no traces of heroism — no resem- 
blance of the courteous manners which distinguished the 
most cultivated period of the feudal ages. 
r 2 



208 ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 

" As soon as the ceremony was finished, Llewelyn with his 
amiable wife returned into Wales to sooth the asperity of 
adverse fortune in the enjoyment of domestic felicity." 

But two years, two short years, were allotted to this 
unhappy prince, of connubial enjoyment, before he was 
overwhelmed with private sorrows, poignant and embit- 
tering as the public griefs which he had previously endured. 
In the year 1280, he had the inexpressible distress to lose 
his beloved wife, who died in child-bed. The liberties of 
his country already lost, and his people indignant at the 
concessions made to the grasping rapacity of the English 
king, there seemed nothing now to attach the bereaved 
prince of Wales to existence. 

Llewelyn ab Griffith was the third of the princes of 
North Wales who had successively espoused English wives. 
When David, the son and successor of Owen Gwynedd, 
married Emma, daughter of Henry II., it was with the 
intent of occupying, in despite of his people, an usurped 
throne by the concurrence of the English king and the 
assistance of his army. But in these unworthy views he 
signally failed, and was hurled headlong trom his height 
by the laudable efforts of a patriotic people, who restored 
the rightful line which had been disturbed by his usurp- 
ation. Llewelyn ab lor worth following the same policy, 
on the death of his first wife, married Joan, the daughter 
of king John, whom, previous to the disgrace which put an 
end to her influence, was viewed more in the light of the 
disguised spy of England than the honoured wife of the 
prince of Wales. Remembering these things, it is but 
natural to expect that the people of Wales looked with 
abhorrence on these English alliances. Although exem- 
plary in her own person, and blameless of any political 
bearing prejudicial to Wales, Eleanor de Montford, how- 
ever dearly beloved by her husband for her beauty and 
worth, could scarcely be a favourite with the people at 
large. They must have remembered with bitterness the 
national sacrifices made by Llewelyn for the attainment 
of her hand; and willingly blind to her excellence of 
conduct, and known partiality for her adopted country, 



ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 209 

rather rejoiced than grieved for her death — by which the 
last semblance of a friendly tie with England was snapped 
asunder. Had she lived longer, her influence with Edward 
could have availed nothing ; nor could she, in the least, 
have averted those momentous events which speedily fol- 
lowed her decease. Those events are matters of history ; 
a general reference to which is alone within the province 
of these memoirs. 

In two years after the death of Eleanor de Montford, 
the fatal war (the termination of which sealed the destiny 
of Cambria) came to a sudden close by the death of 
Llewelyn ab Griffith, when followed the annexation of 
Wales as a province of the British empire.* 



* That the final conquests of Wales and Scotland, and the union of all 
Britain under oue sovereign, ultimately proved the greatest of blessings to 
people, ever harrassed by wars, public or intestine, which tore the vitals of 
these countries, is indisputable. But ; no thanks to the sinister calculators on 
booty, and blood-blinded actors in the awful drama. Though personally actu- 
ated by evil passions and selfish views, doubtless they were but the unconscious 
puppets which were worked by the great master-hand that ruled the universe 
for good, who thus mysteriously advanced the interests of a people capable 
of attaining the highest state of civilization and happiness. Surely we now 
can pause and ponder on the past without rancour. Let us hope that the 
respective descendants of the Saxons and the Celts can meet in social inter- 
course for better purposes than to twit each othe r with the crimes and cruelties 
of their ancestors ; trusting a magnanimity ' of thought will ultimately teach ug 
to concede all tilings to truth and kindliness. It is a poor and small heart that 
can contain no more than its own immediate kindred, or people. 






GENERAL NOTES TO ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 



A writer in that excellent literary paper the Bristol Mercury, under the signature 
of Hengist, has been at considerable pains in connecting the account of Eleanor's 
treacherous capture with the history of Bristol. However meritorious such 
a transaction may have appeared in the eyes of Edward I., and whatever 
glory the Bristolians of that day may have assigned to it, it redounds but little 
to their credit in the lights of a more liberal age that has learnt the wholesome 
art of forgetting the enmity of races. The treacherous manner in which the 
gristoljilo ts ensnared the ship, and consigned a helpless woman into the power 
o?h"erpersecutor, deserves to rank as the first of the trio of stigmas on the fame 
of that city, perpetuated in their heraldic arms ; the other two are more po- 
pularly known— the persecution to death of the poet Savage , and their flagrant 
neglect of their own poet Chattert on. thence driven to starvation, despair, and 
suicide. Had Savage been aware of the chivalric act commemorated by the 
ship and castle in the city arms, what a stern feature might it have formed in 
the vituperative pages of his " London and Bristol Compared ! " The following 
is Hengist's account of this affair : — 

" The circumstances of Eleanor's capture are most interesting, if, as Mr. 
Dallaway opines, they are the origin of the design engraved upon our Bristol 
seal. If our readers will regard the ship and castle which we have adopted 
as an emblem of the present series, to which we have appended the modern 
motto, partly for its brevity, and partly as a symbol that we connect modern 
ideas with ancient memorials, they will find, by comparison with well-known 
engravings, that the once-familiar legend is omitted. That legend runs thus — 
* Secreti clavis sum portus. Navita navis 
Portam custodit. Portum vigil indice prodit.' 
Which is thus translated by Mr. Dallaway—' I am the key of the secret port. 
The pilot steers the helm of the ship. The warder points out the port with 
his forefinger,' and which he connects with Eleanor by the following suggestion. 

" The vessel in which she was taken, he says, was discovered by pilots at the 
mouth of the Avon. The vessel was becalmed, and the pilots (cives) who were 
only four, according to Walshingham, induced the mariners, by promises of 
safety, to enter the harbour of Bristol, /or it was not possible that they could 
have compelled them by actual force. The surprise, as it is termed by other 
chroniclers, consisted in the piloting of this ship, carrying, possibly, the marriage 
portion of the bride, with other splendid furniture, into the creek, or secret port 
of the castle, instead of the open port of the town; and there surrendering the 
prize into the hands of the king himself, who, it may be inferred, was at that 
time keeping his court within his castle of Bristol. 

" It is surmised by Mr. Dallaway that the design of the seal commemorates 
this event to the credit of the townsmen. His conjecture, to say the least, 
is ingenious, and there are grounds, moreover, for believing it true. Mr. 
Dallaway carefully scrutinized the facts, and they seem to bear out his striking 
suggestion. If the register of the abbey of Kainsham, which he quotes as to 
the death of Eleanor, in 1279, the year after her marriage with Llewelyn, be 
correct, then a part of our own speculations must fail." 

And fail they necessarily must, if Hengist is open to conviction, and lost the 
occasion for the pathetic allusion following : — " Llewelin's head with a crown 



GENERAL NOTES TO ELEANOR DE MONTFORD. 211 

of willow was placed on the gate of the tower of London, but Eleanor wore the 
willow in her heart." If so, it must have been literally planted on her grave, 
as her death occurred at the time and in the manner before stated. 

The tendency of the next passage is very invidious and offensive to the nation- 
ality of our countrymen. It aims to prove that the final conquest of Wales 
was delayed— not by the valour of its patriotic and intrepid defenders— but 
from the forbearance of the Norman barons, who for selfish ends wished to keep 
it as a place of refuge when in rebellion against their own sovereigns. 

" There are some excellent remarks., by the late George Ellis, respecting the 
independence of Wales, and ihe means by which it was preserved for so long. 
Pointing out, as he does, the comparative ease with which Edward the I. 
reduced it, while it had proved a continual rock of stumbling to his otherwise 
equally great predecessors, he accounts for it in this way : that the Norman 
barons had many of them an interest in preserving its freedom, and were not 
disposed to facilitate its submission. He hints that they made Wales a sort of 
sanctuary to which they fled when their liberty was in danger. Moreover, 
they obtained thence, if they pleased, volunteer armies to aid them in their 
projects. And we can so far verify his observations, that we have seen the 
earl of Gloucester and others thus making use of their British connections ; and 
we may further add. the obscurity he complains of, as enveloping the history 
of Wales from the conquest, is illustrated best through the medium of Bristol. 
Bristol in fact, like Chester in the north, was the channel by which the races 
communicated " 

In reference to one of the passages which runs, "pointing out as he does the 
comparative ease with which Edward the I. reduced it, while it proved a continual 
block of stumbling to his otherwise equally great predecessors ;"— we may boldly 
demand who were they— the equally great predecessors of Edward ?— certainly 
not the Conqueror William, who troubled^imsel| ;but .little iabj^t a Welsh affairs 
— nor his barbarous son William Rum's— nor even Henry L, excepting Edward 
himself, the greatest and most dangerous of all the royal foes of Wa'es. Henry 
Beauclerc, utterly failing to subdue the Welsh by force of arms, had recourse to 
the most unkingly mode of employing assassins to destroy the chiefs of the 
nation, and used the base chicanery of fomenting intestine broils among the 
people, to the end that they should butcher each other. In the reign of Stephen 
the terrible reaction which took place in Welsh military affairs enabled the 
natives of the principality utterly to destroy the power of the Norman barons 
In Wales, who were fairly beaten in battle, and ultimately the survivors of these 
sanguinary feuds were driven from all their castles beyond the Welsh boundaries. 
Henry II- certainly proved a very formidable foe to the Welsh. Richard Cceur 
de Lion kept aloof from them ; John, ever restless in attempting conquests in 
in Wales, met his match in the hnrd -fighting Llewelyn ab Iorworth, while 
Henry III, gained no laurels in his Welsh campaigns. Having now named 
all the English sovereigns from William the Conqueror to Edward the I. we are 
at a loss to discover the equally great predecessors of the latter prince in their 
battles with the mountaineers of Wales. Effectually to controvert the above 
assumptions of George Ellis, we have merely to direct our readers to the pages 
of Warrington which treat of the hostile occurrences during the periods in 
question. Be it remembered also, that the said historian of Wales always quotes 
his authorities, on all material statements— that he was an Englishman by birth 
and prejudices, and by no means an enthusiast in favour of Cambrian prowess, 
or Cambrian pretensions of any description. 



ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST, 

DAUGHTER OF EUDAV OR OCTAVIUS, LORD OF EWIAS, COUSIN 
OF CON AN MERIADOC, AND WIFE OF MAXIMUS THE ROMAN 
IMPERIAL USURPER. 

" Ellen th' armipotent shines in our sphere." 

"FVlTpn t^P^armipotent, otherwise distinguished in our 
Welsh records, the Triads, as Ellen of the mighty host, was 
a celebrated woman of the fourth centu ry, of the line of 
the Cornish Britons. In Roman and "English annals she 
is called Helen, and Helena; but in Welsh always written 
Elen, and pronounced Ellen. She is often confounded with 
Helena, the daughter of Coel Godebog, and mother of Con- 
stantine the Great. After our memoir of the latter lady, 
this heroine forms the succeeding link in the genealogical 
chain of the Roman-British government of our island. 

Ellen was the daughter of a British chieftain named 
Eudav, but by the Roman writers designated Octavius, a 
man who played a very conspicuous part in the annals of 
his time. He was lord of a state called Ewias, and appears, 
to have been a very energetic and capable person, but very 
ambitious, intriguing, and unscrupulous as to the means 
by which he attained his desired ends. Previous to the 
departure from this island of Constantine and his mother, 
the personage whom he appointed to fill the high office of 
Roman governor of Britain was a British prince named 
Trahaiarn. But as the young emperor found it necessary 
to avail himself of the counsel and talents of this discreet 
Briton, he decided on taking him to the continent in his 
retinue, and to appoint Octavius to act as his deputy until 
Trahaiarn's return 

But it soon appeared that the father of the lady of this 
memoir was no less remarkable for great abilities than for 
the most grasping and insatiable ambition. While fulfilling 



ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 213 

his deputed functions as imperial lieutenant, he soon usurped 
a supreme royal authority in this country, which, however, 
he ruled with wisdom and moderation. When the tidings 
of these occurrences reached Constantine, although deeply- 
engaged in enforcing his claim to the imperial diadem, he 
despatched Trahaiarn with three Roman legions to subdue 
the usurper, and resume his original office. Octavius gave 
him battle soon after he landed, the result of which was the 
signal defeat of his opponent, at a place called Maes Urieu, 
near Winchester. Finding he had to deal with a leader 
of far superior abilities to what he probably anticipated, 
Trahaiarn did not venture on a second battle with him 
till he was fully prepared by re-inforcements, and all neces- 
sary warlike appointments, to insure his triumph. By 
such wise precautions, in the next engagement, Trahaiarn 
not only became the victor, but compelled his defeated 
enemy to fly the island. Octavius, however, was as perse- 
vering and resolute in his efforts to regain his lost authority 
as, unfortunately for his fame, he proved unscrupulous in 
the means of its attainment. He stands charged in history 
with having caused the assassination of Trahaiarn — when 
he once more seized the reigns of empire in the double 
capacity of Roman govenor and supreme king of Britain. 

Octavius shrewdly foresaw that by his hostile bearing 
towards Constantine, and the destruction of his officer, he 
could not fail to ingratiate himself with the ruling powers at 
Rome, to whom the son of the late emperor Constantius 
Chlorus appeared in the light of an enemy of the empire, 
which he aimed to seize by force of arms — notwithstanding 
the solemnity with which his dying father had invested 
him with the purple, and the unanimity with which the 
soldiery had hailed " imperator." He not only succeeded in 
obtaining a confirmation of his rank as the lieutenant of the 
empire in Britain, but by the intrigues, carried on by his 
emissaries in the imperial city, he obtained the appointment 
for a military man then at Rome to take office under him as 
commander of the Roman legions in this island. This 
person was Maximus, a daring adventurer, whose career 
soon became a matter of history— and whose marriage, in 



214 ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 

after time, with Ellen the daughter of Octavias, the lady 
of this memoir, became the source of many political trouble* 
connected with the destinies of this island. 

As the epoch of which we are treating became pregnant 
with national evils that affected the welfare of this country 
to very remote aftertimes, to enable the reader to see his 
way clearly through the intricacy of conflicting incidents, 
we shall here briefly present a view of Roman- British affairs 
previous to the appearance of Maximus on the stage of 
history. 

In the year 364, south Britain was exposed to a furious 
incursion from the marauders of the north, under the names 
of the Picts and the Scots, with other barbarous auxiliaries 
While Britain was thus overrun, and subjected to the depre- 
dations of the rude tribes of Caledonians, joined by the wild 
Hibernian rovers, the Franks and Saxons also came and pil- 
laged the coasts, so that the whole island was in a flame. It 
required therefore a powerful force, led by some great com- 
mander, to repress the depredators and to rescue the province 
from its calamitous situation. It is difficult for us to conceive 
how so large a territory should so easily be laid waste and 
overrun without the supposition that the great body of 
the inhabitants were not well affected to the Roman govern- 
ment — and if they were become a dispirited people, and felt 
they had no country of their own to defend, we can easily 
account for their pusillanimity. In order to rescue the 
province, the emperor Valentinian sent over the celebrated 
Theodosius, father to the great emperor of that name. The 
general took with him several bands of Roman veterans, 
and lost no time after his landing to meet the enemy. In 
his march, from Sandwich to London, he defeated several 
parties of the barbarians, released a multitude of captives, 
and, after distributing to his soldiers a small portion of the 
spoil, he restored the remainder to the rightful proprietors. 
The citizens of London received the hero with exulting joy 
as a deliverer ; and, by his consummate skill and bravery, 
he soon routed the invaders, and drove them home. By 
pursuing his conquests Theodosius restored the country 
between the two walls to the Roman empire, and gave it, 



ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY H08T. 215 

in honour of the emperor, the name of Valentia.* He dili- 
gently restored the ruined cities, and made the fortifications 
secure, after rescuing every part of the province from the 
hands of a cruel and rapacious enemy. 

The valour and prudence of this able and political general 
raised him to high estimation in Britain, which he left in 
such a state of defence as to provide for its tranquility for 
many years. The first interruption of this happy state of 
things was occasioned by the adherence of the Britons to 
the usurpation of Octavius, and the assumption of the 
imperial purple by ** the tyrant" Maximus. 

Maximus was the son of a Spaniard who appears to have 
attached himself to Roman interests — having left his own 
country and entered Britain among the followers of Con- 
stantius Chlorus. He married a British lady related to 
the empress Helena, who became the mother of this Max- 
imus ; thus it was that the intimacy originated between 
the family and the latter. Maximus had occupied, it would 
appear, a subordinate rank in the Roman army, which, 
agreeably to the restlessness of his character, he quitted, 
and went to Rome with a view either of intriguing for 
promotion or some other personal end. It was during 
this absence of Maximus that the aspiring Octavius, as 
before related, raised himself to sovereignty ; and appa- 
rently knowing his man well for congeniality of sentiments, 
employed him to forward his views with the reigning 
powers at Rome, and rewarded his services by getting 
him appointed commander of the Roman legions which 
then garrisoned Britain. Maximus in return seems to have 
entered fully into all the interests of Octavius. He led 
the imperial forces against the Picts and Scots, who were 
perpetually infesting the southern parts of the island, and 
succeeding in destroying immense numbers of these bar- 
barians, and driving the rest homeward, discomfited, 
their bands broken and dispersed. These gallant actions, 
together with his half British origin, gained him great 
popularity both among the Roman troops and the natives of 

* See Qibbou, vol. Hi., c. 25. 

s 



216 ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 

the island. But there was one master-stroke of policy yet 
to be achieved, calculated to crown the pyramid, from 
whose summit he might look down on the whole array of 
favouring circumstances which led direct to the attainment 
of ambition's highest hope. This was, to win the heart and 
hand of the fair Ellen, only daughter of Oetavius, and the 
subject of this memoir. 

Besides his elevated position as commandant of the impe- 
rial legions, Maximus appears to have been a very personable 
soldier, bold, dashing, and intrepid ; superficial qualities* 
it is true, but generally such as find favour in a woman's eye, 
when the most transcendant virtues, divested of tinsel 
pretensions, utterly fail. These were not the times for 
fair ladies to exclaim— 

" Wisdom and wit were all he had, 
But these were all to me." 

Whatever might be her feelings and her opinions respecting 
this imposing personage, certain it is, that Ellen did not 
reject his advances ; perhaps very few ladies would be 
disposed to act otherwise, especially as she found this lover 
a great favourite with her father, who had discouraged the 
addresses of a former suitor. The gentleness of character 
attributed to Ellen would warrant us in concluding that 
filial obedience had the principal share in her assentive 
decision. In those days, as well as all others up to our 
own, interested compulsory marriages, for the advancement 
of ambitious or political purposes, formed one of the saddest 
links in the long historical chain of woman's wrongs. 
The adventurer Maximus, however, at length gained his 
point, and was united in marriage with the daughter of hi3 
friend and patron. 

What makes it probable that this union was not exactly 
founded on mutual affection is, that there was a disap- 
pointed lover in the case — not rejected by Ellen, but by her 
father, who in the first instance favoured such an intended 
match, and then, as his ambitious aspirations unfolded and 
expanded their dazzling glories, commanded her to love and 
wed another. 



ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 217 

The rejected suitor was Octavius's own nephew, Conan 
Meriadoc, a very eminent British chieftain of these times, 
whose name stands ever memorable in ancient British his- 
tory. He was lord of the region of Denbigh, in addition to 
which he held the dukedom of Cornwall, and was celebrated 
for his energy of character and great influence among the 
people. Conan had also his ambitious projects in the once 
intended union with his fair cousin, whom, notwithstanding, 
he held in affectionate regard for her personal merits. He 
calculated that on the death of her father, whenever it might 
happen, that he should, through this anticipated marriage, 
succeed him both in his Roman governorship and his British 
sovereignty. But thus disappointed both in his love and 
ambitious anticipations his resentment was boundless. A 
deadly enmity was cherished between him and Maximus, 
and many a fierce and mutually destructive battle fought, 
to the grievous annoyance of the public peace, and the great 
unhappiness of the lady of this memoir, the wife of one of 
the parties and cousin of the other. 

By the interference of their mutual friends, however, the 
rancour of their hostility gradually declined, and each party 
was persuaded that great advantages would result from the 
establishment of a permanent peace between them. Thus 
it has ever been with the contentious in all ages, the ex- 
ample of former sufferers avails nothing; neither party will 
see their advantage in sheathing the war-sword till their 
mutual exhaustion compel them to the measure— and the 
desolation they have caused becomes the finger point of 
Destiny, warning them to desist or perish. 

As it will soon appear that Maximus had most to gain by 
pacification — agreeably to the plausibility of his character 
we may conceive the earliest overtures came from him — and 
that the pride of the British chieftain being so conciliated 
that they were readily accepted. Thus from the bitterest of 
enemies these men soon became excellent friends, speedily to 
be united in their aims, and bound by mutual interests. In 
this reconciliation and unanimity we may trace the wily 
address of the Roman commander, to whose advanced 
schemes of ambition the assistance of the British chieftain 
now became so essential and even indispensable. 



218 ELLEN OF THE MIGHTT HOST. 

By the machinations of Maximus Britain now became a 
theatre for certain politico-dramatic exhibitions, long in 
rehearsal, at length ready for production. Having himself, 
for a considerable time, enacted the part of an intriguing 
demagogue, alternately exciting and soothing the passions of 
the tumultuous soldiery, these amiable worthies conceived 
they could do nothing better than treat their commander 
with a performance of the oft-repeated farce of emperor- 
making, choosing him as their hero — and relying on his 
promises of wealth, honours, and advancement for all his 
supporters. Accordingly Maximus was hailed "imperator" 
by the wild but unanimous acclamations of his licentious 
legionaries — adding one more to the several imperial pre- 
tenders already in the field, all using their best exertions 
for the destruction of their country, and of all men who 
opposed their individual aggrandizement. 

It must have been about this prosperous period of his 
adventurous fortunes that Maximus found an opportunity 
of representing to Conan Meriadoc what a superior field 
would be opened to his ambition, could he be persuaded to 
abandon his small domains in Britain, and accompany him 
to the continent. That there, their united forces would 
soon acquire for him ample territories where he might found 
a future kingdom, in which his latest posterity should 
flourish in regal magnificence. 

Certain it is, that the British chieftain immediately- 
caught the fire of these ambitious conceptions, and deter- 
mined on an immediate attempt to realize them, by joining 
the expedition of the new emperor elect.* 

"We now arrive at the period when the lady of this 
memoir comes into public notice. One of the first acts of 
Maximus, after his elevation to the empire, was to hold out 
alluring prospects to the spirited youth of Britain, to induce 

* J. Hughes remarks, " by his accession to the imperial dignity and retiring 
from the island, a new change took place in the dynasty of the British kings ; 
but during the life of Maximus the sovereignty must be considered as existing 
entire, though lost in the superior dignity of the imperial title." — Horee Brit. 
This author seems to have forgotten that Octavius, the father of Ellen, was one 
of the firmest of the adherents of Maximus, and became his officer and repre- 
sentative when that adventurer abandoned this island. 



ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 219 

them to become warriors in his cause. His views were to 
dazzle the senate and the inhabitants of Rome and the other 
soldiers of the empire, with conquests yet to be achieved 
in Gaul and elsewhere, in order to gain from the general 
voice a ratification of his election to the purple by his own 
legions : or in case that honour was denied him, to put 
down his opponents by force of arms. To attain this end 
he was indebted to his newly-formed friendship with Conan 
Meriadoc, who being a native-born prince, as might be 
expected, had the superiority over him in popularity with 
his countrymen. Besides his nativity in the island, much 
of the influence of Conan, and Ellen the wife of Maximus, is 
traceable to their being also born christians, and having 
distinguished themselves as supporters and propagators of 
the faith — as, at their period, the christians of Britain 
appear to have been numerous. Thus the known hostility 
of Maximus to the christians, although from policy he 
abstained from persecuting those of this island, utterly 
debarred him from a chance of enlisting them in his legions 
without the assistance of his British connections. Octavius, 
now grown aged, the most active agents in forwarding the 
views of Maximus were Ellen, his wife, and Conan Meriadoc, 
who appears to have been looked up to by the christians as 
the heads of their community, and their natural protectors. 
They soon succeeded in raising him an army of sixty 
thousand men. Strange as it may appear, in this unfemi- 
nine undertaking the name of Ellen stands more prominent 
than her warlike cousin's, and her influence is supposed to 
have been greater, in encouraging the Britons, especially 
the christian portion of them, to enter the army of Maximus. 
This speaks strongly for her intellectual capacity, as the 
multitude in all ages will be found to have given their 
suffrages principally where superiority of mind was most 
manifest ; and the preponderance of female influence over 
a devotional community where a mission of mercy is the 
foundation of their creed, is but a natural result. This 
army, in " the Welsh Triads" is called one of the three emi- 
grating hosts of the island of Britain ; as their purpose was 
to settle in the lands which they should conquer in Gaul. 
s 2 



220 ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 

With this "mighty host" Maximus now prepared to 
embark for Gaul. It was arranged that Ellen, now his 
empress, was to remain in Britain till the success of his 
arms should enable him to ensure her security, when a stately 
escort would be provided to attend her over — so as to 
introduce her with due honours to the inhabitants of the 
" eternal city," as the partner of his imperial dignities. 
Alas, for the futility of mortal hopes founded on the grandest 
schemes of human ambition ! They now parted never to 
meet again. 

Maximus embarked with the first division of this great 
army, and crossed the seas to Gaul, leaving Conan Meriadoc 
as his second in command, who speedily followed with the 
rest of his forces. They were soon employed against the 
Armoricans, who inhabited that part of France then called 
Armorica,* but since known as Bretagne, or Brittany. In 
this enterprize Conan and his followers appear to have made 
incursions and fought separately from the Romans, and to 
have commenced operations by making conquests for them- 
selves. They soon overthrew the army of their opponents, 
killed Imball, their king, in battle, and entirely conquered 
the country. As all this was done ostensibly for the service 
of Maximus, he assented that Conan Meriadoc should assume 
the sovreignty of the conquered nation, to be holden by him 
and his heirs as a dependency of the British crown. 
Leaving garrisons to protect his conquests, the British 
chieftain now joined his forces to those of Maximus — when 
they both proceeded on their destructive course to conquer 
the rest of Gaul as well as the Roman legions that adhered 
to the present government. The two acknowledged em- 
perors of this period were Theodosius and Gratian ; the 
former governed the east, and the latter the west, and who 
was at this time in command of the Roman army in Gaul. 
Among the vices of Maximus was the black one of ingrati- 
tude ; and it appears that this very emperor, Gratian, whom 
he came to oppose and destroy, had been his very gracious 
benefactor ; and to him he was indebted for his appointment 

* Armorica is derived from the Welsh description uf its geographical situ- 
ation. " Ar m5r ucha," signifying "on the upper sea.'' 



ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 221 

as commander of the Roman legion3 in Britain. Fortun- 
ately the career of this " bold bad man" proved as brief as 
it had been atrocious. 

Entering Gaul in imperial state, the Roman soldiery who 
had admired his spirit and martial bearing, as a favourable 
contrast to the pleasure-seeking inactivity of the emperor 
who commanded them, they received the usurper with joyful 
acclamations, deserted their legitimate sovereign, and united 
themselves with the forces of Maximus. 

The indolent Gratian, then at Paris, seeing his standard 
forsaken by his troops, fled precipitately towards Lyons 
with a train of only three hundred horse. There he was 
delivered into the hands of Andragathius, master of the 
cavalry of the usurper, by whom he was despatched. The 
death of the emperor was followed by the destruction of 
of the most powerful of his generals, among whom was 
Mellobandes, king of the Franks, 

The successes of Maximua increased his insolence, and 
emboldened him to make proposals to the emperor Theo- 
dosius, who governed the east. That emperor found it 
necessary to dissemble his resentment, and to acccept the 
alliance of the tyrant, the murderer of his benefactor. At 
the same time it was stipulated that Maximus should con- 
tent himself with the countries on this side of the Alps, 
whereby he was acknowledged emperor of Britain, Gaul, 
Spain, and Germany. 

Had Maximus remained satisfied with this ample territory, 
he might have ended his days in peace ; but he aspired to 
the entire empire of the west. He marched over the Alps 
into Italy, and bid fair at one time of success : but Theo- 
dosius hastened from Constantinople to quell the tyrant. 
A fierce conflict in Panonia decided the fate of Maximus 
by giving success to the arms of Theodosius. Maximus 
fled to Aquileia, in Italy ; but he had scarcely reached that 
city when he was surrounded by his victorious enemy. 
The indignation of the people, and the disaffection of his 
soldiers, conspired to deliver him up to his fate. He was 
conducted like a malefactor to the camp of Theodosius, 
who abandoned him to the rage of his soldiers, by whom his 



222 ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 

head was severed from his body. Such was the end of 
Maximus, whose ambition was not only ruinous to himself 
but to the country where he first set up his title to sovereign 
power, for he drained Britain of her warlike youth, and left 
her a prey to the inroads of her barbarian neighbours, 
A.D. 388. 

The native Britons who had followed Maximus to the 
continent were not present at either of the two engagements 
which decided the fate of their adventurous leader. Max- 
imus had a son named Victor, born of a British lady, and to 
whom he expected the Britons would be ardently attached. 
This youth headed an army who engaged in defending the 
the cause of the usurper and his son in Gaul; but the son 
soon shared the misfortunes of the father, for the British 
troops were defeated, and Victor fell at the head of them. 
In this most pitiable condition they had been left, exposed 
to the insults of a triumphant enemy, forlorn and destitute, 
until that in their wanderings they found an asylum in 
Armorica, or Britanny."* 

This last passage would infer that the Britons under the 
command of Conan Meriadoc did not conquer, or *' find an 
asylum" in Armorica, till after the defeat and death of 
Maximus. But such a conclusion meets its confutation, by 
a passage previous to the last, in the admission that the 
native Britons were not present at either of the two engage- 
ments which decided the fate of Maximus. Where else 
could they be then but with their leader, actively planting 
themselves in Armorica, which doubtlessly, according to our 
former statement, had been conquered by them previous to 
the final catastrophe which dispersed the followers of the 
imperial pretender. The Britons who assisted Victor, the 
son of Maximus, appear to have been very inconsiderable in 
number, and nothing can be more probable than that they 
returned to, and found refuge with, the rest of their coun- 
trymen in Armorica, in the forlorn condition ascribed to 
them. 

A peculiar feature in the character of Conan Meriadoc 
appears corroborative of our latter assumption — his exceed- 

* Hughes's Horse Britamiicae. 



ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 223 

ing prudence ; or, if it must have a less gainly name, his 
cautious selfishness. This led him to be very sparing of his 
aid to Maximus until he had foreserved himself and his compa- 
nions by insuring a certain resting place, a secure retreat in 
case of reverses — a piece of good generalship creditable to 
the forethought which at all times seems to have guided his 
actions and marked his character. Even after making these 
acquisitions, the calculating policy of the British chieftain 
is discernible by the manner in which he avoided committing 
himself and his followers with the adverse Roman powers, 
in case they came off victorious ; his forces were absent from 
the two last battles which decided the fate of Maximus, 
Since his arrival on the continent, the real character of that 
vicious man must have gradually opened to him, and by its 
hideousness have repelled him from too close a partizanship ; 
his cruelty, rashness, and insatiable avarice. Those unpo- 
pular vices would direct the shrewdness of the British 
chieftain to foresee their consequences in the probability of 
his ultimate failure, and so justified his own policy of 
standing aloof from the impending perils which in the end 
crushed the headlong unprincipled adventurer. Added to 
these self-saving views on the part of Conan, considering 
what human nature is, unrefined by principles estranged to 
a rude era, it is not improbable but some portion of his 
ancient grudge to Maximus for supplanting him in the 
affections of his cousin Ellen may have in some degree 
influenced his conduct, and damped his ardour in the cause 
which had brought him from Britain, when his own turn had 
been effectually served. Of course, these are any thing but 
elevating views of the character of Conan Meriadoc; yet, 
notwithstanding, it is likely they come nearer the truth than 
more favourable assumptions coloured by national prejudices. 
In proof that he was no mean politician, however, the conse- 
quences resulting from the line which he adopted were exactly 
what he sought, worked for, and anticipated. His equivocal 
position in regard to aiding Maximus, and his apparent 
desertion of the usurper's cause, saved him from the ven- 
geance of the conquering Roman army, and induced Theo- 
dosius to leave him unmolested in his Gallic conquests, 



224 ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 

It is a curious circumstance, amidst conflicting historical 
details, that the French writers have strenuously denied that 
our insular Britons formed the settlement here described 
under Conan Meriadoc, or that they planted any colony 
on the continent till after the Saxon invasion ; but mere 
denial, notwithstanding, is no disproval. However, this 
sort of antiquarian opposition or encyclopedean disputation 
amounts to little more than a tenacious quibbling about 
dates — as no writhings of wounded national pride, or that 
smaller prejudice, local egotism, could ever assume a denial 
of the fact that the Britons did conquer Armorica, settled 
there, vvhere their descendants still remain, and gave the 
country the name which it still retains, of Bretagne in 
French, and in English Brittany. Our circumstantial ac- 
count of its conquest under Conan Meriadoc agrees so well 
with every probability of correctness as to the era assigned 
to it in our records, that any attempt to overthrow such united 
testimonies, unsupported by well authenticated proofs, must 
be futile and utterly unavailing. 

We now return to Ellen, the lady of this memoir, who, by 
the tragical death of Maximus at this time, became a widow. 
"Whether she gave way to any sanguine anticipations result- 
able from the warlike expedition of her lord, or to any 
violent emotions of sorrow, on his failure and pitiable death, 
is unknown. Considering the ungenial influences which 
brought about her union, and of the headlong wildness of 
that adventurer's exaltation, a sedate mind like hers would 
augur too wisely to build her structure of worldly happiness 
on so infirm a foundation, and might be disciplined to 
anticipate the fearful evils that followed — so that, altogether, 
it is probable that Time found no wounds beyond his power 
to cicatrize, nor sorrows too insurmountable for him to 
subdue. Although her lord was no more, and her dream of 
ambition, if ever she entertained such, melted into air — the 
public call for the services of Ellen had yet to be responded 
to, by as strange a requisition as ever tasked the energies or 
ingenuity of a woman. 

The conquest and occupation of Armorica by Conan Me- 
riadoc and his followers gave rise to one of the most remark- 



ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 225 

able incidents in the early history of this country ; yet, it is 
but fair to confess, the whole narrative is considered by 
many in the light of a fabulous legend. With our faith in 
those national records " the Historical Triads," and the 
Welsh chroniclers, which avouch the fact, we are not of that 
opinion, but decidedly conceive, that however the detail 
may be garnished by monkish fiction, that it has truth for 
its foundation. It is said that Conan Meriadoc, after taking 
possession of the country with his British army, prohibited his 
men from marrying with the Armoricans, or any of the 
native women of Gaul — being determined to banish all whom 
the sword of war had spared of the original population, and 
to people the country anew with a genuine British race. 
For this purpose he sent messengers to Dionethas, whom he 
had left as his deputy in the government of the dukedom 
of Cornwall, and to his cousin Ellen, the heroine of this 
memoir. Of the former he desired that he would send him 
for his bride his daughter Ursula, to whom it is presumed 
he was previously betrothed, with a numerous retinue of 
young ladies and maidens of humbler degree to become the 
wives of his officers and men. 

But it was to his cousin Ellen, whose popularity and 
influence with the christian community was so great, that 
he looked for the fulfilment of this unparalleled requisition ; 
nor, as far as her efforts were concerned, did he look in vain. 
Though hitherto noticed without dissent by any of the wri- 
ters who have treated of this subject, it is manifest that 
Conan Meriadoc's design of dispossessing of their country, 
and probably annihilating the conquered natives of Ar- 
morica, was, morally considered, most atrocious; and in a 
political view most unwise; it is, therefore, we behold with 
regret, a gentle-minded female, imbued with the merciful 
precepts of Christianity, thus imposed upon by the unscru- 
pulous votaries of ambition, to bend herself to a purpose so 
unhallowed — but which, from her confidence in her cousin's 
representations, she doubtless considered of the most vir- 
tuous tendency, and conducive to the propagation of that 
humanizing faith which she ardently believed was ultimately 
to civilize and redeem a barbarous and condemned world. 



226 ELLEW OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 

With her feelings strongly enlisted in a cause, so spe- 
ciously set forth to win her enthusiastic support, but the 
true bearing of which was carefully veiled from her view, 
Ellen went to work with all the energetic spirit with which 
she appears to have been endued. It is probable, however, 
that she found her mission of matrimony a very popular 
one, and that, as she travelled to different districts remote 
and near to address the numerous assemblages prepared to 
receive her, that she met very ready and attentive hearers, 
and that it required no strenuous force of argument, flowers 
of rhetoric, or pathetic demonstration, to persuade some 
portion of her auditory to embrace her views ; and by a 
short sea voyage to enter a territory where husbands were 
to be found "plentiful as blackberries;" especially as it 
may be presumed that many of these fair ones already had 
professed admirers, brothers, or other relatives, in the army 
of Conan Meriadoc. However, the result of Ellen's oratory, 
seconded perhaps by predisposal on the part of Tier as - 
sentive hearers, was, that the daughters of the land came 
forward in dozens, scores, fifties, hundreds, and at length 
thousands, as pious candidates for wedlock, or volunteer 
votaries for the hymeneal altar. We are told that Ellen had 
the address to induce no less than rlrrrn _thpuinnd,JBritit'h 
virgins to embrace this undertaking. 

We are told that the Lady Ursula and this vast concourse 
of females, embarked in the different ships prepared for their 
reception ; but it seems that Ellen, personaljy, was not of 
their number; and it is probable she was at that time a 
middle-aged woman, and by no means desirous of a matri- 
monial connection. It is certain that in after time she 
repented, suffered, and sorrowed most intensely, for the well- 
intentioned part which she had taken in advocating this 
fatal emigration ; as it is in the natural course of things, 
that as none of the party reached their destination, but 
suffered and perished far from their homes and friends, that 
their relatives in Britain should reproach her as the prin- 
cipal cause of their bereavement. And perhaps taunted her 
with keeping aloof herself from the perils of an expedition 
which she had so earnestly advised, and energetically eulo- 



ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 227 

gized, but was too prudent to stake her personal safety in 
it. "We see the cruelty and injustice of such a charge, and 
can conceive the impassioned vehemence and inconsolable 
affliction of those so bereft of their near and dear ones ; their 
desolate firesides and overflowing hearts, the most fitting 
monuments of the distressing catastrophe. And sad as the 
saddest, we can cjonceive Ellen enduring these piercing 
taunts with silent resignation — a heart consumed with unex- 
pressed grief — appealing for the truth of her blamelessness 
to the only true scanner of all hearts, without censuring the 
human injustice which condemned her. 

There are different and very conflicting accounts of the 
tragic termination of this singular and disastrous voyage. 
The details of it, as stated in Roman catholic church history, 
is so greatly overcharged with monkish fables and incre- 
dible absurdities, concocted in the school of holy frauds, as 
to violate the probability of the results narrated. However, 
to give the reader a specimen of the extravagance here 
deprecated, in the article entitled " St. Ursula and the 
eleven thousand virgins/ 1 we have cited one of their versions 
of this catastrophe. 

In the Welsh chronicles we are informed that " adverse 
winds and a tempest arose on their departure, by which the 
fleet was scattered ; the ships containing the gentle Ursula 
and her ill-fated maidens, either foundered at sea or were 
wrecked upon the shores possessed by Guarrius, king of the 
Huns, or Melga, king of the Picts, by whose barbarous 
subjects, it is said, the unhappy females were cruelly treated 
and afterwards slain." 

Thus the cruelty and injustice originally contemplated, 
of forbidding the Britons to unite themselves with the women 
of Armorica, who had been widowed or orphaned by their 
arms, by this fatal catastrophe, was completely averted ; 
and it is probable that many of the war-worn Britons were 
glad to sue to those females whom the virulence of national 
animosity had in the first instance induced them to reject. 
The Britons, however, were predominant in the land, which 
decidedly proves that the survivors of the Roman contests 
were somewhat numerous, or that the men of Armoriea 

T 



228 ELLEN OF THE MIGHTY HOST. 

had been nearly exterminated by the arms of Maximus and 
Conan Meriadoc. Both history and tradition are silent as 
to the further state of Ellen. Conan Meriadoc became 
the first king of Britanny, and founder of the dynasty of 
British kings there. 

Whatever good points may have graced these expeditions, 
upon the whole they must be considered the most disas- 
trous of measures in their ultimate results that ever was 
conceived. The departure of so vast a portion of the popu- 
lation drained the south of Britain so fearfully of its inha- 
bitants, that it became a temptation to the rapacity of the 
barbarous Picts of the north, who invaded the vacated 
territories in great force; and in their many marauding 
expeditions they were too fatally successful. It was the 
continual incursions and depredations of these barbarians 
that in after- times induced Vortigern to embrace the fatal 
project of calling in the aid of the Saxons to assist in ex- 
pelling them ; in this they succeeded, but seized the country 
for themselves, and for centuries did their utmost by assas- 
sination and remorseless wars, to exterminate the descend- 
ants of their original hosts and employers. 

General Note. — Buchanan relates the following anecdote of Maximus, who 
lias figured in this memoir, exhibiting his character in a more favourable light 
than his bearing in other respects seems to warrant. When Maximus, in con- 
junction with the Picts, was fighting against the Scotch, the Tictish leader sug- 
gested to the Koman governor the necessity of utterly annihilating the Scottish 
race, as they were a people, he said, who were insensible alike to the terror 
of the Eoman arms and the forbearance of Eoman clemency. Struck with the 
atrocity of the proposal, Maximus replied, "immortal gods ! know barbarian, we 
noble Romans war not so : we come to save and civilize, and not to massacre 
mankind." 



I If 



THE PRINCESS ELFLEDA, 

DAUGHTER OF ALFRED THE GRE AT, AND WIDOW OF EDELRED, 
KING OF MERCIA. 

Although this terrific warrior^^ueen of the Saxons came 
among the Welsh only to shed their^T6^6 t ^ i ano!'*^etze upon 
their possessions, to burn their dwellings, and cast the chain 
of captivity on all whom the sword of war deigned to spare — 
yet she shall have, what it is probable she never gave our 
ancestors — fair play at our hands. It is true, that had she 
appeared in life amidst her present company, her presence 
would have created any but pleasant sensations ; but as the 
heroic Elfleda is not without her merits, they shall be duly 
stated and candidly descanted upon. 

Elfleda, the daughter of Alfred the Great, was as jnas- 
culine in frame as she proved intrepid in mind. There is a 
singular anecdote related of her, that when she received 
young Edelred, son of the king duke, or earl of Mercia, as 
her lover, the youthful pair took every precaution to keep 
their meetings secret. One of these interviews took place 
during a winter's night ; and time, as time always does in 
such cases, passed more rapidly and unnoted than when the 
hours are employed it study or devotion. When, at length, 
the lovers were about to part, at an hour well described as 
" between the late and early," to their mutual terror, they 
discovered that a great Jail of sn Jgw na( i covered all the 
ground, so that t he footsteps of any retreating party would 
be traceable in the morning. While in this unutterable 
state of consternation, the young prince was under the 
influence of great distress of mind at the probable conse- 
quences of a discovery that appeared inevitable — his own 
audacity in clandestinely visiting- his great sovereign's 
daughter — the peril that threatened his beloved princess 
from the severity of her father — these reflections hung 
heavily about his heart — while the fair partner of his 
imprudence, more wisely, pondered on expedients how to 
extricate themselves from their troubles. A happy thought, 
like the golden wing of a passing angel hastening onward 



230' THE PRINCESS ELFLRDA. 

on a mission of mercy, flashed suddenly on the mind of 
Elfleda, and changed her pallid cheek to the glowing 
radiancy of revived confidence. In a few words she explained 
the nature of her plan, and refused for a moment to enter- 
tain the delicate scruples of her lover. In an instant she 
was out at the lattice, or window, of the ground floor 
apartment which they occupied ; then turning her face from 
it, and bending her back to a convenient state for the prince 
to mount, she received his weight, and bore him off trium- 
phantly ! She carr^d^him^vjlith ease and rapidit y, a consi- 
derable distance beyond the precincts of the palace, put him 
down in security, wished him good speed, then hurried back 
to her apartment, which she re-entered at the window. 

But this feat of fine horsemanship performed upon the 
back of a king's daugfiiterT^id not pass unwitnessed ; two 
pair of human eyes were expanded to their utmost stretch, 
in wonderment of a scene so strange — those of king Alfred 
and the learned Asser his chancellor. The sleepless cares, 
said to inhabit the kingly crown, and perhaps the chan- 
cellor's black cap, had made these sages watchers the 
livelong night ; pondering, perhaps, how best to extirpate 
certain swarms of national vermin, in the hated forms of the 
red-haired men of Denmark, who then infested the king- 
dom ; and aimed to perform by the Saxons what the rats 
are said to do by the rabbits — to kill the whole community, 
and repeople their dwellings with their own party. 

Notwithstanding the cares of state, the vigilant Alfred 
was no stranger to the amatory meetings between his 
daughter and the young prince of Mercia ; but on witnessing 
this strange exploit of the young lady's, he determined to 
put an end to such vagaries for the future. Unknown to 
the princess, the prince of Mercia was overtaken by swift 
horsemen, who, according to their instructions, soon brought 
him back a prisoner. Alfred occupied his chair of state in 
the throne room, surrounded by his courtiers, when Edelred, 
in chains, was led in by a party of guards — and to their 
mutual astonishment and terror confronted with the princess. 

After a grave silence of some moments' duration, Alfred 
demanded of his assembled courtiers, lords and ladies in 



THE PRINCESS ELFLEDA. 231 



their different groups, u whajt-'does that man deserve, who 
presumes to make a mule of a king's daughter?'' The 
ready answer of more tha^i one voice was? " he deserves 
death." After enjoying theWonderment of his court, and 
the perplexity of the young offenders for/a short space, the 
benevolent Alfred called them td^hinvalid with an outburst 
of mirth that would shock the etiquette of modern courts, 
declared that as a punishment due to their enormities they 
should be made man and wife before sunset ,• a decree that 
was accordingly put into speedy execution.* 

But, alas, for the brevity of youthful felicity — those sunny 
days that well may be called the romance of life ! Elfleda 
has no more to be related in the spirit of the scene we have 
attempted to describe. The stern and stirring business of 
life, diversified alone by different degrees of affliction, pos- 
sessed the rest of her unenviable days. She lost her 
husband in early life,f who left her the widowed mother of 
an only daughter named Alfwyen.J Soon after this heavy 
blow occurred the death of her venerable father, the illus- 
trious Alfred, deservedly styled the great. In addition to 
her affliction for these grievous bereavements, she had to 
endure much from the rapacity and cruelty of her brothers, 
who, in their quarrels for the succession to her father's 
throne, alternately ravaged her little kingdom of Mercia, 
and seized on a considerable portion of her dominions. 
Immediately on the death of her father, her eldest brother, 
Edward, was enthroned in the royal dignity ; " which," in 
the words of Wynne the historian, "so displeased the 
ambitious spirit of his brother Adelwulph that presently 
he raised a cruel war against him," and flying to Northum- 
berland, he united his army with that of the hereditary 
enemies of his family and country the Danes. The Danes 
and Angles, with a certain number of traitorous Saxons, 
made him their king. Marching proudly^ at the head of 
this barbarous horde, he ravaged the country wherever he 

* As a similar anecdote is related^ a daugh ter ^ ™» V^IMS.'T Jt would be 
a difficult matter to vouch for the authenticity of this romantic incident, but 
the character of all parties places it quite the within the verge of probability. 

t In the year 912. 

t By some authors called Elfwina. 

T 2 



232 THE PRINCESS ELFLEDA. 

came, destroying all who refused to acknowledge the legit- 
imacy of his title as their sovereign. Among these was 
his sister Elfleda, the widowed princess of Mercia, who, 
notwithstanding the ruin which threatened her, had the 
firmness to deny his right to the dignity which he had 
arrogated to himself— and who probably rated him in no 
very choice terms, for his presumption and treason against 
his elder brother and lawful sovereign. To revenge 
himself on his sister, Adelwulph had the dastardly cruelty 
to destroy her country with fire and sword ; wherever he 
passed, desolation marked his progress. It merits par- 
ticular notice, how history distinguishes that he subdued the 
country of the east Saxons — but only spoiled the country 
of Mercia ; from which it may be inferred that the former 
country acknowledged him for its sovereign, while the latter 
refused — which argues strongly for the popularity of Elfleda 
with her subjects. Some time after Adelwulph was skin 
in a decisive battle, wherein his brother Edward was the 
victor. Notwithstanding the generosity and loyalty of 
Elfleda towards Edward, as her elder brother and sovereign, 
which had subjected her to the revengeful cruelties of Adel- 
wulph, the former, in a spirit of gratuitous heartlessness, 
deprived her of her sovereignty and revenues in the cities 
of London and Oxford — on no other plea than what was 
derived from the suggestions of selfish ambition.* 

If a woman, under any circumstances, can stand excused 
before the judgment seat of man, for subduing those attrac- 
tive graces which make her lovely in his eye, her soft 
demeanour, retiring gentleness, and yielding flexibility of 
character, to trespass over the sexual boundary with which 
nature has fenced his prerogatives — to put on the stern 
characteristics of manhood— not the masquerading foolery 
of the helmet and war-boots of Mars upon the shrinking 
frame of Venus — but the dire, fateful earnestness of the 
life or death hazards of the day of battle — then surely 
Elfleda is not only uncensurable, but feelingly commendable 
for the subsequent part she took in repelling personally the 

* The kingdom, or earldom of Mercia, comprised all the country lying north 
of the Thame3. 



THE PRINCESS ELFLEDA. 233 

aggression of ambitious neighbours and every description of 
marauders or assailants. The unenviable functions which 
she embraced, glowing as the results of her daring appear 
in the dubious lustre imposed by success, was not a matter 
of choice, but literally enforced upon her by the merciless 
necessity which environed her position. Deprived of the 
natural support of the dependent state, her womanly con- 
dition unprotected by the powerful arm and daring heart 
of man, she said to her soul in the extremity of her help- 
lessness, " my husband is in the grave, my father's sleep is 
dreamless of mv woes, — my brother — let me not think of 
him ! — no, I have none to help me — then I will be a man 
myself — as far as in me lies, I will emulate his virtues, and 
nerve my woman's heart with manly resolution." 

In the year 914, when king Edward was busily employed, 
in opposing and expelling the Danes from the north of 
England, Hwgan, lord of Brecon and prince of west Wales, 
** seized, as he thought a favourable opportunity of reveng- 
ing the many insults which had been offered to his country, 
and recovering, by well-timed exertions, the possessions 
which had been wrested from his ancestors ; and with the 
strongest levy be could muster, he passed the Saxon bound- 
ary and commenced hostilities."* 

Seeing her brother's dominions thus invaded m his 
absence, forgetful of his cruelty and injustice towards her 
and her country, with a refined spirit of magnanimity that 
would have done honour to a more refined nation and period, 
this generous daughter of the royal Alfred, who, of all the 
children of that great prince, seemed alone to inherit the 
virtues of her father personally, led an army to oppose the 
prince of Wales. Meeting with Hwgan on the borders, 
a severe engagement ensued, in which she not only defeated 
him, but compelled him, with his broken bands, to seek 
safety in flight. He took his course towards the north 
of England, and at Derby — the strong hold of the Danish 
powers, being favourably received by those in power there, 
he joined his army to theirs, and thus strengthened the 
enemies of king Edward. Assured of the correctness of 
* Theoptulus Jones's history of Brecoushire. 



234 THE PRINCESS ELFLEDA. 

this intelligence, Elfleda immediately marched her army 
into Wales, and entered the town of Brecon in battle array. 
She attacked the castle* of prince Hwgan, soon took 
it by storm, and made the princess, his wife, and thirty- 
three of her people prisoners of war, whom she sent off to 
a safe custody in Mercia. This battle in Welsh is called 
Gwaith y Dinas Nemydd; signifying the work of the new 
fortress. 

" Hwgan being thus disconcerted in his projects and 
disgraced in his arms (as before observed), fled to Derby, 
where he joined the Danes, who cordially received and 
tendered him their assistance. Supported by his new 
friends, he prepared for a recommencement of hostilities ; 
but all his attempts to elude the vigilance, or resist the 
good fortune of Elfleda, were vain ; with incredible activity 
she hastened with her victorious army and pursued her 
defeated foe to his rallying place; here, before he was 
enabled to complete his schemes, she laid close siege to the 
town. Though Hwgan, on the other side, was not idle, 
and though he encouraged the garrison, both by exhortation 
and example, to make a spirited defence, yet after a trifling 
advantage, the gates of the city were set on fire by 
Gwayne, lord of Ely, steward to Elfleda, and after a vigorous 
attack, possession was taken of the citadel by the assailants. 
Hwgan, perceiving that every thing was irrecoverably lost, 
determined to die bravely rather than surrender himself 
dishonourably to a woman — he therefore rushed furiously 
into the heat of battle, and fell, covered with innumerable 
wounds."f 

Still anxious to assist her brother in clearing the country 
of those restless intruders the Danes, we find Elfleda next 
year besieging the city of Leicester, " which was quickly 
surrendered, and the Danes therein perfectly subdued." 
The fame of these several actions being bruited abroad, the 
inhabitants of the neighbouring provinces became, as Wynne 
expresses it, fearful and timorous ; and the Yorkshire men 
voluntarily did her homage, and professed their services. 

Such, accomplished in a very brief space of time, were 

* Wynne's history of Wales. t Wynne's history of Wales. 



THE PRINCESS ELFLEDA. 235 

the warlike feats of the intrepid, never-failing princess 
Elfleda. Some of our Cambrian historians, who are more 
remarkable for the warmth of their patriotism, than the 
coolness of an unbiassed judgment on her claims to admi- 
ration, have cast their sneers at her assumption of the 
functions of a general, and called her an amazon ; observing 
also, " that from her masculine talents and military exploits, 
she was generally called the king :''* but fortunately for 
her fame, none could disparage her with more invidious 
terms. 

But Elfleda was not distinguished merely as an emulator 
of the '* town-battering, homicidal, gory Mars,"f fo% 
honourable mention is made of her, as '* a woman of singular 
virtues — and one that greatly strengthened the kingdom 
of Mercia, by building towns and castles against the incur- 
sions of foreign enemies."]; She is also favourably noticed 
for having repaired and rebuilt those portions of the city 
of Chester which had been battered or destroyed by the 
Danes. The towns which she built in Mercia were Stren- 
gat and Bruge, by the forest of Morph ; Tamworth, 
Stafford, Edelburgh, Cherenburgh, Wadeburgh, and Run- 
cofe — eight fortified towns or cities! more than double 
the number that she is said to have destroyed. Thus, 
to her glory be it recorded, amazon as she is called, her 
pacific deeds far surpass in magnitude all that is attributed 
to her destructive feats in war; and, therefore, the good 
which she performed for the benefit of the human race, in 
the same proportion will be found to over-balance the evil. 

She died at Tamworth, in the year 920, after eight years 
rule over the kingdom of Mercia. Her ceaseless exertions 
for the protection and general benefit of her subjects, must 
have won her their most devoted love and admiration while 
living, and their deepest regret for their irreparable loss 
at her decease. She lies buried at St. Peter's, in the city 
of Gloucester. 

It is with no slight degree of indignation we learn, that 
on the death of this generous heroine, her brother, king 

* Theophilus Jones. t Wynne's history of Wales* 

% Cowper's floraer's Iliad. 



236 THE PRINCESS ELFLEDA. 

Edward, the unworthy successor of the great king Alfred, 
had the unspeakable baseness to disinherit her orphaned 
daughter Alfwyen ; when he seized all her lands in Mercia, 
under the unfounded pretence that he had heard she was 
about to contract a private marriage with Reynald, king 
of the Danes, unknown to him, whom her mother had 
appointed her guardian. 

We intended to conclude this memoir here ; but since 
writing the foregone, we have alighted on Pennant's account 
of this heroine. As he records some matters not included 
in our researches, and has omitted many points herein 
^embraced, we will give his account entire, so that altogether 
the reader will have as perfect a biography as can be gleaned 
at this time of day of the celebrated Elfleda.* 

" This lady (Ethelfleda) is so frequently mentioned in 
the Mercian history, that it will not be impertinent to give 
a brief account of her. She was the undegenerate daughter 
of*the great Alfred, and the wi^oFBdelred, earl of Mercia, 
under his brother-in-law Edward king of England. On the 
birth of her first childf/she separated herself from her 
husband, and for the rest "of her days, likejan amazon of old, 
determined on a life of (^astityj^BtT" devoted herself to 
deeds of arms. She kept on the best terms with her 
husband : they united in all acts of munificence and piety ; 
restored cities, founded abbeys, and removed to more suit- 
able places the bones of long-departed saints. After the 
death of her husband, in 912, she assumed the government 
of the Mercian earldom, and the command of the army. 
She became so celebrated for her valour, that the effe- 
minate titles of lady, or queen, were thought unworthy of 
her : she received in addition, those of lord, and king. 

Elfleda potens, terror virgo virorum 
Victrix nature, nomine digna viri 

* Pennant and some other authors write her name Ethelfleda, but in the 
earlier accounts of her she is generally called Elfleda. 

t Rapin, and other authors state, that the agony and life-peril of travail, at 
the birth of her child, caused her to form this resolution, being assured that 
if again subjected to such danger, that her death would probably be the 
consequence. m 



THE PRINCESS ELFLEDA. 



237 



Ta quo splendidior fieres, natura puellam, 

Te probitas fecit nomen habere viri. 
Te mutare decet, sed solum nomine sexus, 

Tu Kegina potens Kexque trophcea params, 
Nee jam Cassare splendidior virgo virago vale. 

Henry Huntington, lib. v., p. 354. 

Elfleda, terror of mankind ! 
Nature, for ever unconfined , 
Stamped thee in woman's tender frame, 
Though worthy of a hero's name. 
Thee, thee alone, the mute shall sing 
Dread empress and victorious king ! 
E'en Caesar's conquests were out-dfne 
By thee, illustrious amazon ! — R. W. 

The heroine appears well to have united this eulogium.* 
Her abilitie s and activity were perpetually exerted in the ser- 
vice of her country. She erected a castle at Sceargate ; 
another at Briege, the modern Bridgeworth ; the third at 
Tammeorthige, or Tamworth ; a fourth at Stsefford; a fifth at 
Eadesbyrig, now the chamber in the forest in Cheshire ; 
a sixth at Wseringwic, or Warwick; a seventh at Cyric- 
byric,orChirbury ; an eighth atWeardbyrig, or Wedsburrow, 
in Staffordshire ; and a ninth at Rumcof, or Runcorn, in 
Cheshire. She took Brecknock, and made its queen pri- 
soner : she stormed Deoraby, or Derby, but lost four thanes 
within the place ; and finally she restored the city of Leger- 
ceaster, after its desolation by the barbarians, rebuilt the 
walls, and, as some pretend, enlarged the city so greatly 
as to include the castle, which before stood without the 
ancient precincts. Death put an end to her glorious course, 
at Tamworth, in the summer of 922, from whence her body 
was translated to Gloucester. Her loss was regretted by 
the whole kingdom, and by none so sensibly felt as by her 
brother Edward, for she was as useful to that prince in the 
cabinet as in the field. f 

* Much as we admire the fame of Elfleda, we must protest against this 
conclusion, this ridiculous instance of exaggerated eulogy, contained in the two 
last lines of the poem. The comparison with Csssar certainly is altogether 
injudicious in the extreme, 

t If this eulogy ^f Edward is founded in truth, how are we to accouut for 
his very questionable conduct in disinheriting the daughter of Elfleda, as before. 
recorded ? 



,3 V 



THE LADY EMMA, 



WIFE OF GRIFFITH AB MADOO, LORD OF DINAS BRAN AN 
LOWER POWYS. 

Among her other claims to the notice of posterity, thi 
lady and her unpopular lord stand recorded, in a direct line, 
as the immediate ancestors of our great national hero Owen 
Glendower.* 

Of the husband of Lady Emma, Pennant says, " Griffith 
ab Madoc, lord of Dinas Bran (so styled in consequence 
of his making that castle his chief residence), unfortunately 
became enamoured of Emma, daughter of Lord James 
Audley,f who alienating his affections from his country, 
made him one instrument of its suhjection, and the destruc- 
tion of his own family. He took part with Henry III. 
and Edward I. against his own natural prince. The resent- 
ment of his countrymen was raised against him, and he 
was obliged to confine himself in his castle of Dinas Bran, 
where probably grief and shame put an end to his life in 
1270. 

Proverbially accurate as Pennant is generally allowed to 
be, he is not altogether correct in this statement. When 
Llewelyn ab Griffith, the last native prince of Wales, found 
his star in the ascendant, he paid a hostile visit to Powys, 
punished the adherents of Edward I., and pardoned those 
whose unhappy circumstances compelled them to desert 
the cause of their country, on their abandoning the standard 
of their invaders, and returning to their duty. Thomas, 
in his "memoirs of Owain Glyndwr/' says — "he banished 
Griffith Gwenwynwyn out of the country, but Griffith ab 
Madoc's submission restored him into favour, and reinstated 
him in his patrimony. Griffith's policy was commendable ; 

* In Welsh written Owain Glyndwr. 

* Lord James Audley was a valiant English captain o£ these times, who 
dread fully annoyed the Welsh with his German cavalry, which, however, was 
at length totally destroyed. 



THE LADY EMMA. 239 

the fortune of England was now at a low ebb ; he returned 
to the duty he had long deserted, and found protection in 
his natural sovereign. His return to allegiance and fidelity 
diffused joy and satisfaction through every breast ; nor does 
history record any disobedient acts of his to the day of 
his death — which happened in 1270, at his castle of Dinas 
Bran. He was buried in the neigbouring abbey of Llane- 
gwest,* which his father had erected.f 

"Kegibus Anglorum fult hie Griffinus Amicus, 
Aversatus herum Leolinum, cujus ab iram 
Se bene munitum Castello Semper in illo 
Continuit latitans, nomen locus indidit hide : 
Orbati teneris nati linquuntur in armis."— Pentarchia. 

The conclusion at which Pennant and the Welsh histo- 
rians have arrived, respecting the evil consequences of 
Griffith ab Madoc's marriage with the lady Emma, is 
scarcely warranted, on a fair investigation of the history of 
this period, so disastrous to Cambrian independance. There 
were other, and very powerful reasons for the conduct 
which he adopted, without attributing undue blame to a 
Woman, whose greatest misfortunes were being too lovely, 
a foreigner in a strange land, and native of that hostile 
nation, most abhorred by her husband's countrymen. In 
fact there was nothing new or strange in the conduct of 
Griffith ab Madoc, however unworthy it may be deemed. 

The chieftains of Powys were always notorious for their 
anti- patriotism and alliance with their national enemies. 
Even Owen ab Madoc ab Meredith, the grandfather of 

* Llanegwest was one of the last founded abbeys ; it was founded 26th 
Henry VIII., to be endowed with £188 8s. per annum, according to Dugdale; 
and, £214 3s. 5d. according to Speed. " It was granted 9th James I. to Edward 
Wotton."— Tanner's Not. Mon. " There still remain the ruins of the church, 
and part of the abbey ; the last inhabited by a farmer. The church was 
built in the form of a cross, in different styles of architecture, the most ancieirt 
is that of the east end, where the windows are in form of long and narrow 
slips, pointed at top. The window at the west end is large, divided by stone 
tracery, and above is a round window of elegant work.."'— Pennant. 

t Griffith left four sons by the lady Emma, his only wife— Madoc, Llewelyn, 
Griffith, and Owen. Griffith became the founder of the family which gave 
Wales her Owen of Glendower. 

V 



240 THE LADT EMMA. 

this Griffith, married to Susannah, sister of the patriotic 
Owen Gwyneth, and therefore, without the pretence of 
being biassed by an English wife, being a leading man in 
the times of Henry II., Richard I., and king John, was 
generally in opposition to the interests of his country. Io 
an assembly of chieftains convened by Llewelyn ab Ior- 
worth, at which Madoc (the father of Griffith) stood fore- 
most, that hard-fighting generous prince made known to 
them his determination to rescue his nation from English 
vassalage. He represented to them in strong pathetic 
terms the evils resulting from their lamentable disunion 
and their want of virtue in deserting the interests of their 
country, whose miserable situation he painted in such 
colours as wrought upon their minds a momentary but 
too transient gleam of patriotism. Madoc, doubtless, felt 
this appeal as a reflection on the infamy of his father, who 
confederated with Henry II., and incited him to invade 
North Wales, commanded his navy, and made a descent on 
the island of Anglesea, where a cruel butchery of the 
inhabitants, and an immense destruction of property, was 
the result, although the ravagers were ultimately worsted 
and cut to pieces, by the islanders.* Another princely 
traitor of the Powysian race was Owen ab Edwyn the 
father of Angharad, consort of Griffith ab Cynan, as nar- 
rated in the memoir of that amiable princess. He deserted, 
with his whole army, to king Henry I., which compelled 
his son-in-law, the sovereign of North Wales, to fly his 
dominions and seek refuge in Ireland. With these striking 
instances before us, of the defection of former princes of 
Powys, it is unjust to charge the English wife of Griffith ab 
Madoc as the sole* cause of her husband's attachment to the 
sovereign of England. 

* His treachery towards his native country, and alliance with Henry, arose 
from a spirit which could not brook submission, in conformity to the 
rules of Eoderic the Great, to Owen Gwyneth, the reigning prince of Korth 
Wale3. Powel, in his history of Wales, says, " notwithstanding his defection 
from the cause of his country, he was a man who feared God and relieved the 
poor."— As much has been said in favour of the greatest villain that ever 
disgraced humanity, William de Breos, lord of Abergavenny. See the memoir 
of Matilda de Haia in this work. 



THE LADY EMMA. 241 

Setting these considerations aside, the private conduct of 
the lady Emma appears to have been both wise and exem- 
plary in all respects. The lordships of Griffith ab Madoc 
stood, as We might say, centrally between the English and 
Welsh belligerants. Perceiving perhaps, with a prophetic 
eye, what must ultimately prove the issue of the contest 
between a powerful and a weak state, the natural conclusion 
must be that what be considered prudence, got the better 
of his patriotism, and determined him to join the strongest 
party ; the success of which, in his view, was most likely 
to bring about the earliest settlement of the peace of the 
country, and be a bulwark of protection to his family. 
Judged by Spartan or ancient Roman principles, his conduct 
must be contemned. But, if prudence is indeed a virtue, 
and the preservation of his own family allowable to have 
a first hold on his affections, the decision of Griffith ab 
Madoc, in the eye of modern civilization, cannot be consi- 
dered in the light of very deep criminality, even if counselled 
thereto by his beloved English partner. But whatever 
may have been the lady Emma's political sins in the esti- 
mation of Welshmen of olden times (and indeed it is doubt- 
ful whether any better foundation can be found for the 
charges against her than the violent prejudices of the times, 
and the bitterness of national antipathy), in the eye of 
humanity, her private worth calls for deep appreciation, 
as a highly honoured wife and a greatly beloved mother. 
Previous to his death Griffith ab Madoo manifested his 
affection by the settlement on her of considerable lands for 
her own personal revenue. There is a hundred in Flint- 
shire bearing the name of Maelor Saesnaeg ;* so called 
from its being a part of the jointure of this English lady. 
As witnesses to this settlement on their mother, in their 
father's lifetime, the four sons of Griffith set their hands 
and seals, and became also the faithful executors of a deed 
which deprived them of a portion of their inheritance. 

* According to Pennant, Maelor Saesneg consists of these parishes— Worthen- 
bury, Bangor, Hanmer, and the chapelry of Overton on this side of the Dee ; 
of Erbistoek on the other side, opposite to Overton ; and of Hope in the other 
portion of the county of Flint. Part only of Erbistoek is in the county of Flint, 
the rest is in Denbighshire. 



242 THE LADY EMMA. 

The crowning proof of the excellence of character which 
distinguished the lady Emma, in her own family, is to be 
found in the affection of these sons. It is pleasant to see 
recorded, long after the death of their father, these worthy 
young men not only confirmed and renewed their father's 
settlement on their widowed mother, but made considerable 
additions to the original grant. 

It has been mentioned, that at the death of Griffith ab 
Madoc, he left four sons ; consequently, from the peculiarity 
of her position, the lady Emma found herself placed under 
circumstances of great difficulty in respect of these chil- 
dren. Her husband's nearest kindred claimed the guard- 
ianship of the four boys, which their mother determined 
to resist, and opposed with all the energy of her character, 
which became more developed when she found herself with- 
out a protector, and thrown upon the resources of her own 
mind. These paternal relatives naturally feared, that if 
the children were taken by their mother to England to be 
reared there, they would become thoroughly English in 
their feelings and future political bias, inclining, of course, 
more to the king of England than to the princes of Wales. 
Notwithstanding her watchful vigilance to thwart their 
designs, they succeeded in depriving her of Griffith and 
Owen, the two youngest of them ; but Emma retained the 
two eldest, Madoc and Llewelyn in her own hands. How- 
ever, finding herself subjected to a long and harassing 
system of annoyance from these kindred, mental disquietude 
on this account, and the difficulty she found in maintaining 
her own jointure, so wrought upon her firmness, that at 
length she resolved upon a measure more fatal to her inter- 
ests than the most cruel machinations of her enemies could 
have devised. " She thought it expedient to transfer the 
care of them to king Edward L, alleging that their ancestors 
had sworn fealty to the king of England, and that they 
were feudally his wards. Edward accepted their wardship, 
and committed Madoc to the care of John, earl Warren, 
and Llewelyn to Roger Mortimer, third son of Ralph Mor- 
timer (second husband of Gwladys Ddu), lord of Wigmore. 
It will be observed that these children had a portion of 



THE LADT EMMA. 243 

their late father's estates assigned them ; Madoc the elder, 
the lordships of Bromfield and Yale,* and had a claim to 
the reversion of Moldsdale, Hopesdale, and Maelor Saes- 
naegj his mother's jointure, and detached part of Flintshire 
before described. Llewelyn, the second son, had allotted 
to him the lordships of Chirk and Nathewdwy — no small 
temptations to guardians -who bore them but little regard. 
However, we are informed that earl Warren built the castle 
of Holt in Bromfield — and Roger Mortimer the castle of 
Chirk — and placed English garrisons in each of them, 
ostensibly to protect the property of those children from 
their father's relations, but in reality to keep them for them- 
selves — for the unhappy children were doomed from the 
hour they fell into the custody of their English guardians. 

Pennant remarks on the English king's cruel policy — on 
the death of Griffith ab Modoc, Edward I. ungratefully 
bestowed on John earl Warren the wardship of the eldest 
son of his old partizanf — as he did that of the second on 
Roger Mortimer. Both guardians understood the meaning 
of the favour ; and accordingly made away with the poor 
children, and gained full possession of their estates. Yorke, 
in his royal tribes of Wales, says, " and, as it might happen, 
the wards were missed — and no more found. 



-Tali, curantes arte pupillos, 



Kursus ut ad patrias nunquam rediers penates. 

Pentarchia. 

" What manner of death they suffered is unknown ; tra- 
dition says they were drowned in the night in the river 
Dee, at Holt. They perished by some secret and violent 
death, by the hands of their guardians, without a doubt, 
who, by the grants of Edward, succeeded generally to their 

* In Welsh written Ial. 

t Edward I., when prince of Wales and earl of Chester, experienced Griffith 
ab Madoc's friendship and attachment, and was assisted by him in his attacks 
upon Wales. For him the unhappy chieftain had to endure the hatred and 
execrations of his countrymen, and what might be called a long imprisonment 
in his castle of Dinas Bran, from whence he dared not stir for many years 
dreading their vengeance as a partizan of the English king. But neither those 
considerations, nor the eminent services of lord James Audley, father of tho 
lady Emma, availed with that iron hearted destroyer of nations. 
v 2 



244 THE LADY EMMA. 

estates. Edward, however, participated in the spoil, but it 
is to be hoped not in the destruction of the wards. Tho- 
mas, the biographer of Owen Glendower remarks— "his 
animosity and vindictive spirit towards the last prince of 
Wales might justify the insinuation^ and his acquittal 
would be very dubious before a jury of Welshmen." 

It appears, further researches and accidental discovery 
enabled Pennant to correet certain very material errors in 
the above accouut, which he does in the following statement. 

Historians have been mistaken in supposing that the 
children who were murdered were the two eldest sons of 
Griffith ah Madoc ;* they were, in fact, the children of 
Madoc, Griffith's eldest son ; so that in reality, it was her 
grandsons whom the lady Emma gave to the wardship of 
the heartless Edward, and whom earl Warren and sir Roger 
Mortimer caused to be drowned under Holt bridge. What 
crowns the satisfaction of the settlement of this historical 
question is the following addition by Pennant : — n This I 
discovered in a manuscript communicated to me by the 
reverend Mr. Price, keeper of the Bodleian library. Before 
that, the manner of the death had been current in the 
country under the fable of the two fairies who had been 
destroyed in that manner, and in the same place ; but the 
foundation of the tale was till very lately totally lost. The 
barbarity of the two guardians, so far from being punished 
by their master, was rewarded : Warren had the grant of 
Dinas Bran,* and all Bromfield, confirmed to him, dated 
from Rhyddlan, Oct. 7th, 1281 ; and Mortimer that of Chirk." 

To return to the lady Emma— finding herself an object of 
persecution from the hostility of her late husband's kindred, 
and being molested in her jointure by them in revenge for 
having delivered her grandsons to the care of the English, 

* It is evident the children of this chieftain had arrived at manhood before 
his death— as we find the four sons witnesses to a settlement made by their 
father on lady Emma, their mother, as before related in this memoiy. 

f Dinas Bran castle stands on a great height, opposite to the town of Llan- 
gollen ; its ruins nearly cover the summit of a vast conoid hill, steeply sloped 
on every side. It was one of the primitive Welsh castles. From the Warrens 
this property passed by marriage to the Fitzalans, and followed the succession 
of the lord* of Bromfield 



THE LADY EMMA. 245 

she was thrown into great perplexity. She made applica- 
tion, to king Edward to take Maelor Saesnaeg, her jointure 
into his own possession, and give her lands in England for it, 
where she could spend the residue of her days in peace. 
Edward, of course, acquiesced in her desires, and thus got 
into possession of those noble domains, and held the same 
ever after. On the death of the lady Emma, these lands 
should have reverted to her family. But Edward kept both 
the demesnes of Hopesdale and Maelor Saesnaeg, the latter 
he annexed to Flintshire under the pretence that the heirs 
were rebels. 

The period of the lady Emma's decease, or any record of 
what further befel her, is unknown. Doubtless she disco- 
vered, when too late to recal the past, that the greatest error 
of her life was attaching too high an opinion to the character 
of her sovereign, by giving her grandchildren to his protec- 
tion. When, in the evening of life and the solitude of a 
sorrowing old age, she had to endure the agony of reflecting on 
this false step, which brought the poor children to a premature 
and cruel death — and the contrast presented in the safety 
and happiness of those who remained in Wales, under the 
guardianship of her husband's kindred — it is probable that 
poignancy of her grief made her latter days so extremely 
wretched, that her prospect of the grave was more soothing 
than severe. 

Pennant adds, Warren usurped the property of Madoc, 
but was seized with remorse for his crime, and instead of 
removing the other object of his fear, as a Machiavelian 
politician would have done, procured from Edward a grant 
ot Glyndyfrdwy to Griffith, the third son of Emma and 
Griffith ab Madoc, dated from Rhyddlan, 12th February, 
1282. Griffith held his lordship under the king of England 
in chiefty, and was, by the Welsh, called y Barwn Gwyn % 
or the white baron. He possessed also his deceased brother 
Owen's portion of Cynllaeth, and so in descent to Owen 
Glendower. 

Wynne, in his history of Wales, says, "Griffith's wife had 
in her possession for her dowry, Maelor Saesneg, Hopesdale, 
and Moulsdale, with the presentation of Bangor rectory." 



246 THE LADY EMMA. 

Elsewhere he observes, " seeing two of her sons disinherited 
and done away, and the fourth dead without issue, and doubtjng 
lest Griffith, her only surviving child, could not long con- 
tinue, she conveyed her estate to the Audleys, her own kin, 
who, getting possession of it, took the same from the king. 
From the Audleys it came to the house of Derby, where it 
continued a long time, till sold to Sir John Glynne, sergeant- 
at-law, where it still continueth." 

Thus by this unfortunate arrangement, Griffith, the third 
son of Emma and Griffith ab Madoc, was deprived of that 
portion of his inheritance, but succeeded to the lordship of 
Glyndwrdwy, and became the great great grandfather of 
Owen Glendower, as thus. He was the father of Madoc 
Crupl, or the cripple, who was the father of Madoc Vychan, 
who was father of Griffith Vychan, who was the father of 
Owen Glendower. 



x*rj 



ESSYLLT, 

SOLE DAUGHTER AND HEIRESS OF CYNAN TYNDAETHWY, KING 
OF NORTH WALES, AND {ftU EEN OF MERVYN VYRCH, KING 
OF ALL WALES AND THE ISLE OF MA& . 

To account for the marriage of this princess with the king 
of_thfi Tslg^of Man, we must commence by relating some 
incidents which took place in the reign of her father. Cynan 
Tyndaethwy, king of north Wales, was disturbed in his 
government by the hostility of his brother Howel, who 
claimed of him a division of the sovereignty, and to have the 
island of Anglesea for his own share. Sensibly aware of 
the impolicy of such a measure, and its certain tendency to 
weaken the nation when opposed to a foreign power, as 
fatally proved in after years by his grandson Roderic's 
adoption, the king resolutely opposed a scheme so pregnant 
with national disasters. Howel, equally tenacious of what 
he considered his right, according to the law of gavelkind (so 
fatal to monarchies and excellent in republics — the ultimate 
ruin of Wales), determined to compel his brother to yield 
him that portion of his dominions. The brothers met in 
arms, and in two hard-fought battles Howel came off vic- 
torious, and for a while held the sovereignty of Anglesea in 
defiance of Cynan. But, in a third engagement between 
them, Howel was overthrown, and being compelled to fly 
his country, became a ruined, homeless refugee. 

Ireland, £$Hhe Isle of Man, appeared to be the only coun- 
tries where a Welsh prince under such unfortunate circum- 
stances could meet entertainment and protection, and to the 
latter island Howel bent his course. The Isle of Man was 
then ruled by Mervyn Vyrch, a prince of very amiable cha- 
racter, courteous manners, and of similar royal descent with 
his own family. He was the son of Gwyriad ab Elidure, 
descended from Belinus, the brother of Brennus, one of the 
early kings of Britain. His mother was Nest, daughter of 



248 ESSTLLT. 

Cadell the son of Brochwell Yscythraeg, king of Mathravel, 
or Powys. Mervyn received the unhappy prince with the 
utmost urbanity, kindness, and hospitality. The revenues 
of certain lordships in the north of the island were assigned 
for his maintenance, and every attention that a noble mind 
could suggest, to ameliorate the severities of fortune, were 
with studied delicacy accorded him. This honourable 
treatment wrought powerfully on the mind of Howel ; over- 
whelmed with gratitude towards his generous host, he sug- 
gested to Mervyn that he should seek the hand of his niece 
the princess Essyllt, sole heiress of his brother Cynan Tyn- 
daethwy, king of north Wales, in marriage. Speedily 
acting on this advice, and following the instructions of Howel, 
Mervyn wooed, won, and married the lady. Howel died in 
the fifth year of his exile in the Isle of Man, which was A.D. 
822. He survived his brother the king of north Wales 
about two years ; and so far from yielding to any sugges- 
tions of ambition to seize on the vacant throne, as a less 
generous prince might have done, he seems to have found a 
superior pleasure in seeing his niece and friend enthroned 
in that sovereignty. 

It is pleasant to contemplate, in rude times like these, 
such an instance of a naturally turbulent and ambitious 
mind overcome by a sense of obligation, and yielding to 
the dictates of friendship and the most refined notions of 
honour. 

Thus, on the death Cynan Tindaethwy, about the year 
820, the princess Essyllt and her husband Mervyn Vyrch 
became the king and queen of north Wales and the Isle of 
Man, which were united into one sovereignty. To prevent 
the jealousy and discontent commonly entertained bv a semi- 
barbarous people against a prince or princess not native 
born, the government was carried on under the joint names 
of Mervyn Vrych and Essyllt. 

Of personal memoirs we have scarcely anything more to re- 
late of this princess^ but by her position in joint sovereignty, 
and perhaps in the executive department of the government, 
her life may be supposed to be completely mixed up with 
the public affairs of the day. Her existence was passed 



ESSYLLT. 249 

amidst the most stirring events ever recorded in the annals 
of her country — when Danish irruptions and Saxon inva- 
sions scarcely allowed an interval of peace to either the 
Britons or their assailants. 

The contemporary Saxon sovereign of this period was that 
ever restless wielder of the battle-brand and desolating war- 
torch,Egbert,*kingofthe west Saxons. The personal character 
and great abilities of this prince rendered the epoch not only 
remarkable in a high degree, but to the Britons it was the 
most terrible and disastrous ever experienced by them since 
the landing of Hengist and Horsa. The public events of 
her father's time and her own compose a chain of the most 
dire national evils, of which each link is a calamity, that 
hitherto had ever befallen their nation. 

In her father's reign, and the early part of her own and 
partner's, the important cities of Shrewsbury and Chester, 
and a considerable circuit of country, embracing many dis- 
tricts attached to each, were torn for ever from the Welsh ; 
the British inhabitants slaughtered or driven thence, and 
repeopled by the Saxons. The island of Mona was seized 
in the same manner, and to make its conquest the more 
memorable, the name was changed to Anglesea, or the En- 
glishmen's isle — which, although reconquered in after time, 
it has retained ever since. Her fathers contemporary was 
the barbarous and butchering Offa, king of Mercia, who 
caused the deep dyke and high rampart bearing his name 
to be made. It extended a hundred miles over the rocks 
and mountains, across valleys and rivers, from the waters of 
the Dee to the mouth of the Wye, where the latter falls into 
the Severn. The only season of peace sought, or acceded 
to, by Offa, was for the insiduous purpose of finishing this infa- 
mous dyke unmolested ; the purpose of which was, to divide 
the fair and fertile portion of the country, that had been torn 
from the Welsh and seized by the Saxons, from the stark 
and sterile mountainous regions, to which he meditated to 

* Although Egbert failed in conquering the Britons, he succeeded in mas- 
tering all the kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy, and united them all into one 
under his own sovereignty— and then, for the first time, ordered his dominions 
to be called England, and his subjects Englisbrnen. 



250 ESSYLLT. 

confine them, and made it penal, under terrible consequences 
(often exacted), to pass its boundary. To revenge himself 
on the Welsh who had despised his dyke, and levelled it for 
considerable length, Offa with a strong army sought their 
forces. "Both parties coming at length to a general en- 
gagement upon Rhuddlan Marsh, the Welsh, under the 
command of Caradoc, a chieftain of the country, were en- 
tirely defeated, with a dreadful slaughter, and their leader 
slain in the action. Besides this great loss which the 
Welsh had suffered, the Saxon prince commanded all 
the children and the men who had fallen into his hands to 
be massacred, the women scarcely escaping his. fury.*'* 

In the year 808, twelve years before the accession of Essyllt 
to her father's throne, in the course of one of the Saxon 
invasions, the city of St. David's was laid in ashes by that 
remorseless people. That event was preceded by an eclipse 
of the sun and moon — a terrible distemper likewise seized 
upon the cattle — and the next year the city of Diganwy 
was destroyed by lightning. These incidents, arising from 
natural causes, were marked by superstition as presages of 
national calamity."f 

Matthew of Westminster recites no less than two inva- 
sions of Wales by Egbert in the years 810 and 811, and in 
the year 819 he again over-ran the dominions of the Britons 
with a powerful army, " desolated the country as far as the 
mountains of Snowdon, and seized on the lordship of Rhy- 
voniac. He then advanced to Mona and took possession of 
that island, having fought a bloody battle with the Welsh at 
Lanvaes, near Beaumaris. It was at this period, as before 
related, that the island irrecoverably lost its ancient name. 
This formidable inroad was no sooner over, as if the Welsh 

* Warrington. The memory of the massacre of Morva Rhuddlan is pre- 
served in an ancient Welsh ballad attached to an air of singular pathos. Theo- 
philus Jones, the Breconshire historian, relates, that when this was played 
by a Welsh harper before Colonel Shebbert, a venerable foreign officer settled 
in that country, that the old gentleman was affected to tears, declaring that 
he was certain the powerful pathetic music which he heard commemorated the 
defeat of a great army. 

t From this time Diganwy ceased to be the residence of the kings of north 
Wales. 



ESSYLLT. 251 

were to enjoy no interval of peace, than Kenulph, king of 
Mercia, in two successive inroads, committed great devas- 
tation in west Wales and in Powys. 

Matthew of Westminster mentions another invasion of 
Wales, in the year 830, in which he partially subdued the 
the country, and made its kings tributary. The Welsh, in 
excessive resentment of these numerous invasions, in the 
year 833 allied themselves with a Danish army which then 
invaded the Saxon territory, " as the less and more distant 
evil, to wreak their vengeance on the Saxons, and to esta- 
blish the Danish power on the ruin of their more immediate 
and hereditary enemies." 

In consequence of this alliance, the Welsh joined their 
forces with the Danes, and after having ravaged a great part 
of his dominions, and destroyed many of his castles and 
fortified towns, they fought a severe battle with the Saxon 
prince upon Hengist Down ; but in this action they sus- 
tained a terrible defeat, with the slaughter of a great part 
of their army. 

In 835, to revenge himself on the Welsh for their combi- 
natien against him with his mortal enemies the Danes, Egbert 
invested Chester, the chief city of ancient Vendotia, in Welsh 
called Caerlleon Ddwrdwy, one of the most important posts 
on the British frontiers. Having taken the city, he caused 
the brazen effigies or statues of Cadwallon, king of Britain, 
with which the town was adorned, to be pulled down and 
defaced — forbidding, on pain of death, the erecting of such 
again. 

We are too apt, like the ancient historians and chroniclers 
of our country, to overlook the effect of female influence in 
political and warlike doings ; but were the real parts which 
that sex look in these transactions duly recorded, it is pro- 
bable we should find many of the vaunted warriors of the 
day in the position of puppets — the wires that set them in 
motion being guided by the fertile head and dexterous hand 
of a woman. We are told, in the present instance, that 
Egbert was influenced in his excessive severity against the 
Welsh citizens of Chester, by the inveterate malice of his 
wife Redburga, whose hatred of the Welsh almost amounted 






252 ESSYLLT. 

to frenzy. The merciless pair united their venom in a pro- 
clamation, as cruel as it was unavailing, commanding that 
all the men, with their wives and children, who were de- 
scended from British blood, should depart their territories 
in six months on pain of death. And to add injury to 
insult, Egbert promulgated another law, as'savage and use- 
less as the former, which affixed the penalty of death to 
every Welshman who passed the limits of Offa's dyke and 
should be taken on the English borders. But he did not 
live to see these barbarities put into execution, but died very 
soon after the conquest of Chester. " His death," says 
Warrington, " probably suspended for several ages the destiny 
of Wales." 

" A short cessation of the Danish inroads gave leisure to 
Berthred, the tributary sovereign of Mercia, to renew hos- 
tilities against the Welsh, and a severe battle was fought, in 
S43, by the two princes, at a place called Kettel, upon the 
frontiers, in which Mervyn, the prince of north Wales, was 
slain. Her son Roderic the Great succeeding to the sove- 
reignty, the widowed princess Essyllt,*as queen dowager, it 
is probable, lived the remainder of der days in the quietude 
of obscurity ; but the particulars of her after life, and the 
period of her death remain alike unrecorded. 

* In Bassett's " Antiquarian Researches," an excellent work on Glamorgan- 
shire Genealogy, commenced in 1846, we have the following pedigree of this 
royal lady: — "Essyllt, sole danghter and heiress of Cynan Tyndaethwy, being 
thirteen generations from Coel-godebog (father of the empress Helena,). We must 
now give a genealogy of this princess by way of ascent up to Cynedda Wledig. 
Her father, Cynan Tyndaethwy, lived about A.D. 770, and was the son of Rodri 
Molwynog (the raging or foaming Roderic) who reigned about 710, and wasthe son 
of Cadwalader Fendigiad, living about 680, and was the son of Cadwallon, living 
about 640 ; he was the son of Cadvan, who flourished about 605, and was the 
son of Jago ab Beli, living in 565, and was the son of Beli, living in 585, and was 
the son of Rhun, living in 555, and was the son of Maelgwn Gwynedd, who lived 
about 520, and was the son of Caswallon Lawhir, living about 470, who was the 
son of Einion Yrth (Einion the resister), living about 420, who was the son of 
Cynedda Wledig aforesaid, living about 370." Cynedda Wledig was the son of 
Edeyrn, the husband of Gwawl, or Julia, the sister of the empress Helena. 






j.*3 



MEGAN VERCH EVAN, 

OR MARGARET EVANS OF PENLLYN. 



Megan verch Evan,* or Margaret Evans, of Penllyn (lake 
head), was a very extraordinary character ; and, although 
occupying but a homely position in life, as the human race 
are all creatures of circumstances, it is not uninteresting to 
surmise what she might have been had fortune cast her lot 
in another sphere and era, and given a fair field to her genius. 
It is undeniable that this PugtfcJjSKflBe of a comparatively 
lowly lot possessed more of what is called the master mind 
than many who have been born to empire, swaying the fate 
of nations, and conducting them to eminence and glory. 

The only written account which we have met of her is in 
the pages of Pennant's " Tour in North Wales," where her 
tastes, talents, capacities and qualifications, are enumerated 
more in the style of an auctioneer's catalogue than anything 
resembling a biographical memoir. He says, " near this end 
of the lake (of Lanberris) lives a celebrated personage, whom 
I was disappointed in not finding at home. This was Mar- 
garet verch Evan, of Penllyn, the last specimen of the 
strength and spirit of the British fair. She is at this time 
(the year 1786) about ninety years of age. This extraordi- 
nary female was the greatest hunter, shooter, and fisher of 
her time. She kept a dozen, at least, of dogs, terriers, 
greyhounds, and spaniels, all excellent in their kinds. She X^ 
killed more foxes in one year than all the confederate hunts 
do in ten ; rowed stoutly in a boat, and was queen of the 
lake ; fiddled excellently, and knew all our old music ; did 
not neglect the mechanic arts, for she was a very good 
joiner, boat builder, harp maker, blacksmith, and shoemaker. 

* Megan or Margaret verch Evan, signifies Megan daughter of Evan ; she is 
farther designated "of Penllyn," from her house being situated at the head of 
the lake of Lanberris, at the foot of Snowdon. 






254 MEGAN VERCH EVAN. 

She shoed her own horses, made her own shoes, and built her 



/ 



own boats while she was under contract to convey the 
copper ore down the lakes. At the age of seventy she was 
the best wjestJjg^JjEL the country, and few young men dared 
to try a fall with her. She had once a maid servant of con- 
>»* genial qualities — but death, that mighty hunter, at last 
earthed this faithful companion of hers. It must not be for- 
gotten that all the neighbouring bards paid their addresses 
w* to Megan, and celebrated her exploits in pure British 
verse. At length she gave her hand to the most effeminate 
V^of all her admirers, as if pre-determined to maintain the 
superiority which nature had bestowed on her.*' 

Recurring again to the consideration of what this homely 
heroine might have been under other and more favouring 
circumstances, we shall venture to steer our course into the 
region of probabilities, and contemplate her in certain ele- 
vated positions. 

The late Louis Philippe, king of the French, was in his 
day emphatically styled the Napoleon of p eace, with equal 
justice, in the estimation of philosophy, might not this won- 
derful woman be designated the Boadicea of humble life ? 
Of such materials, mental and bodily, as gave being to 
Megan verch Evan, most assuredly was that ancient British 
heroine composed, and under different auspices these extra- 
ordinary females might have changed places; the same 
might be said of the doughty Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, 
and even of the greatly capable, firm willed, and ready 
witted queen Elizabeth. 

Let us imagine Megan verch Evan, with her manifold and 
wonderful capacities, born in another land, and coming in 
contact with the great Peter of Russia, under similar cir- 
cumstances with the Swedish corporal's widow — and this is 
a fairer parallel than might at first appear ; for our intrepid 
Welsh woman's condition through life was much superior 
to Catherine's original state.* The strong but coarse mind 
of Peter did not revolt against the circumstances of degra- 

* For a real account of Catherine, see Voltaire's History of Charles XII., 
and of Peter the Great, and especially the graphic memoirs of the Margravine 
of Bareith. The wretched ruhbish in general circulation in England, called the 



MEGAN VERCH EVAN. 255 

dation in which he found the fair Swede, as the mistress of 
the ennobled cook's boy, prince Menzikoff, but captivated 
by her native graces, transferred her to his own palace, 
and kept her in the same capacity till her merits became 
developed, when he espoused and made her his empress. 
It is probable that Catherine in early life was really 
handsome, and a very graceful little woman — and the credit 
of a good address is generally conceded to her; but with 
the proverbial penchant of tall men for dimunitive women, 
it is likely .the czar exaggerated her claims to high re- 
gard. With the exception of her fortunate hit, which ex- 
tricated Peter from the disasters of Pultowa, it is probable 
her other merits were to be sought for, like those of the 
majority of her sex, in the peculiar taste and imagination of 
her admirer. 

The Margravine of Bareith, with little respect for the 
romance in which her history had arrayed her,* strips away 
the trappings of fancy, and exhibits her as she appeared at 
the court of Prussia — a dumpy little woman, overdecked 
with ornaments, but somewhat of an economist in soap and 
water.f According to the traditions of north Wales, Megan 
verch Evan was tall, firm set, and of a noble presence. 
What a congenial partner would she have been for such a 
man, who, of all others, would have valued those original but 

" Life of Catherine," appears to have been concocted by some insipid spinster to 
suit the taste of those squeamish members of the frivolous classes, who rejoice 
in the attributes of fine-ladyism as opposed to true womanhood—parallels 
and points of contrast we are never tired of showing up, to the glory of the 
latter. The spurious life of Catherine has been industriously divested of historic 
facts, and filled with polite fictions— which makes it a worthy companion for 
that shallow piece or desecration, the " Family Shakspeare," a darling object of 
patronage among inane dowagers and drawingroom dawdles." 

* It is a matter both of surprise and regret that the so-called life of Cathe- 
rine I. of Russia, in the pages of that excellen^periodical, Chambers's Edinburgh 
Journal, deviates strangely from the correctness which usually distinguish the 
articles in that work. It is, though elegantly written, no exception to other 
fanciful and spurious " lives" of this princess, a polite fiction, but would appro- 
priately come under the head of the romance of biography. 

t The witty and satirical Margravine represents Catherine as overloaded with 
the portraits of Russian saints, which jingled as she walked, and gave a rather 
lively idea of a trotting mule in harness. 
x 2 



256 MEGAN VERCH EVAN. 

masculine qualifications, so repulsive to the generality of 
mankind. And what an empress of Russia Megan would 
have made ! especially after burying the autocrat, when her 
genius might soar uncontrolled. Even the second Cathe- 
rine might have been surpassed in her better course, that of 
emulating the reform spirit of the great Peter ; but in her 
darker deeds Catherine was, doubtless, unapproachable. 

But, alas ! for Megan, poor Megan — great Megan — li- 
mited as she was to a lowly sphere, and playing a small 
part in the great drama of human existence, she was above 
the frailties of either of these empresses, guiltless of the 
crimes and cruelty of the last, dying in the esteem of all 
whom she valued — and not one, of all the earth, " to the last 
syllable of recorded time," will ever curse her memory. 
Oh! happy contrast in the humble heroine of the lowly cot. 



FLEER, 






THE DAUGHTER OP MYGNACH THE DWARF, AND WIFE OF 
CASWALLAWN AB BELI, THE CASSIVELAUNUS OF ROMAN- 
HISTORY, 



This lady belongs to a y££yearl^jejgoch in our national 
history, and was not only coevalwith, but said to have been 
the origin al caus e of the earliest i nvasio n of this country by 
the Romans. 

Fleer* was the daughter of a dwarf named Mygnach Cor, 
and, although her father might have been considered as one 
of the least comely of mankind, his daughter is said to have 
shone very the p aragon of the fe male beauti es of her time. 

One of the Celtic or Gaulish kings of Gascony, called 
Murchan Lleidr, or Murchan the thie f, has had his memory 
consigned to infamy for his heinous offences against this 
ancient British beauty. This contemptible king of the 
Gascons, dreading the arms of the Romans, who had already 
made conquests in Gaul, and incapable of acting the hero in 
defence of his nation, found it easier and more congenial to 
his ignoble nature to play the parasite and sycophant to 
Julius Csesar, distinguished himself in the capacity of a 
royal pimp to that imperial terror of the barbaric world. 

The celebrity of Fleer having reached the continent, pro- 
bably carried thither by the bards and minstrels of the time, 
her fame for surpassing beauty at length became known to 
king Murchan. This amiable specimen of Gascon royalty 
then determined on a personal visit to our island, to ascer- 
tain whether this reputed beauty was equal to the extrava- 
gant eulogies floating amidst popular report. But nothing 
could be less royal either in its motives or appointments 
than the sinister visit of king Murchan. Instead of entering 

* In Welsh written Flur, but pronounced as above. 



258 FLEEE. 

Britain with the state and retinue of a sovereign prince to 
demand in marriage the hand of this superlatively lovely 
woman, he came like the satrap of a despot whom he feared, 
on a nefarious errand — sneaked into the country with all 
the cautious cunning of a peering spy, a very thief, to ascer- 
tain, by occular inspection, whether the thing he coveted 
as a marketable commodity was worth the peril and igno- 
miny of his contemplated robbery. 

The chroniclers of the olden time have given us no account 
of the disguises assumed, or the motives assigned by the 
Gascon prince and his followers ; but of one thing we are 
assured by them — that as soon as king Murchan found him- 
self in the presence of the beautiful Fleer, all his doubts as 
to the extent of her imputed charms instantly vanished. 
He found her to exceed, in an immense degree, the most 
florid descriptions ever penned by the poets or sung by the 
bards. 

On ascertaining this important fact, king Murchan, in a 
business-like manner, determined on her immediate ab- 
duction, which it is probable he carried into execution on 
the very night succeeding the day of his introduction to 
her. Like the Sallee Rovers of later times, the Gascon king 
and his gang of fellow scoundrels, is supposed to have sur^ 
prised her dwelling in the night, borne the struggling beauty 
off to his galley, and rowed towards his dominions in Gaul. 
There he kept her, under forcible detention, for the amiable 
purpose of presenting her as a mistress to the great con- 
queror Julius Caesar. 

The dismay of the family of Fleer on discovering that she 
had been carried away by strangers may be easily conceived. 
Among the admirers of that lady was a gallant chieftain 
named Caswallawn ab Beli ; the same who shines in Roman 
records under the latinized name of Cassiv elaunus. The 
tenderest attachment appears to have existed between them, 
therefore his emotions on this trying occasion will be better 
conceived than expressed. To his restless activity, exceed- 
ing energy, and acuteness in inquiry at every probable source 
of intelligence — her family were indebted for the information 
which he gained, that the infamous foreigners who had 



FLEER. 259 

violated the sanctity of the home of his beloved, were Mur- 
chan, king of Gascon y, and his followers, and that the galley 
which bore her away had departed at midnight. 

To take instant measures for overtak ing her and rescuing 
her,, and punishing her abductors, now became the only object 
"of Caswallawn' s care. Stung by the insult, enraged by the 
atrocity, and deeply grieved for her probable sufferings and 
ultimate fate, unless speedily recovered from the power of her 
captors, Caswallawn in an incredible short space of time levied 
an army of sixty-one thousandmen, with whom he embarked 
for Gaul, for the declared purpose of invading the dominions 
of the infamous king of Gascony, and the recovery of his 
beloved Fleer.* 

Dates, and minor detaifs, were matters that appear to 
have been beneath th£ notile of the most antique chroniclers 
and legend writers ; |hey Jlealt only in the grand results of 
the enterprizes which tl^ undertook to record. Thus it 
is in the present instance — all that we are permitted to 
know is, that Caswallawn led his great army against the 
forces of king Murchan, that he utterly routed them, having 
slain no less than six thousand of the enemy — and that he 
recovered the object of his affections, with whom, and his 
victorious army, he returned in triumph to his native land. 

Were these historic statements mere matters of romance, 
which in some respects they may be said to resemble, poetic 
justice would demand that signal retnolition should fall 
personally on the head of king Murchan, whose death at 
least, amidst his broken bands and flaming palace, would be 
indispensably required. But unluckily we have no data to 
support the assumption of his punishment in the flesh ; and 
we conclude that this royal rip., like many successful crimi- 
nals of all periods, lived out his after days in prosperity, 
lauded for his magnanimity and graciousness, while devising 
other schemes of atrocity, and exulting in their completion. 



*A ccording to Dr. Owen Pug h's account of this expedition, Caswallawn and 
his army passed over into Gaul,~ln conjunction with his nephews Gwenwynwyn 
and Gwenar, with numerous auxiliaries from the people bordering on Galadin, 
or Netherlands, and from the Belwennys, a race who inhabited the country 
about Boulogne. 




260 FLEER. 

The Welsh, however, in addition to the chastisement in- 
flicted by the army of Caswalkwn, avenged themselves on 
the Gascon king by affixing to his name the stigma which 
has clung to it for ages, and may distinguish it while the 
letters and languages of this isle exist, of Murclian Leidr, or 
Murchanjthe thief. 

The beautiful Fleer, the lady whose transcendant charms 
on this occasion put sixty-one thousand men in motion to 
avenge her abduction, arid probably as many to commit and 
uphold the deed, unfortunately became the direct cause of 
what was then considered the direst evil that could befal her 
country, the invasion and ultimate conquest of Britain by 
the legions of Rome. 

Although we have this instance of a hostile visit made by 
a British army to Gaul, it appears that the Britons had more 
frequently been the friends and allies of that country, and 
rendered it the most efficient aid against the Roman invaders. 
But as this expedition, for the liberation of Fleer, being the 
greatest army ever sent from the shore of Britain, was 
directed against a tributary state, the presumed friend and 
ally of Rome, both that circumstance and the magnitude of 
the armament combined to give umbrage to Julius Caesar. 
That great commander and statesman saw at once the neces- 
sity of bringing Britain under Roman control, as an addi- 
tional security for his Gallic conquests and the fidelity of 
the Gauls. Caesar's own account partially confirms this 
view of his motives, wherein he states that it was in consider- 
ation of the assistance which the Britons rendered the 
Gauls in their battles with the Romans that determined 
him on the subjugation of the island. "Some of the ene- 
mies of Caesar, glancing at his notorious avarice, raised a 
report that the beauty and costliness of British pearls, with 
which some of our rivers then abounded, was in reality the 
principal motive for his invasion,"* which taken literally was 
a very puerile insinuation, but we are told that this was 
only a poetical metaphor, signifying the female beauties of 
Britain, the celebrity of whom was then vivid and in general 

* Dr. Owen Pugh's Cambrian Biographical Dictionary. 



FLEER. 261 

circulation, like the fame of Circassian beauties of modern 
times, founded on the eventful circumstances connected 
with the adventures of Fleer, the lady of this memoir. 

Caswallawn ab Beli, the distinguished lover and after- 
wards the husband of the lovely Fleer, was the most cele- 
brated chieftain of his time, and proved, with his gallan t 
Britons, a most formidable opponent to the invading legion s 
of Rome. He is mentioned with respect in Roman annals 
by the latinized name of Cassivelaunus — while in the his- 
torical Triads of his own country, his importance as a great 
and active leader in the most perilous times is strikingly 
recorded. 

After conquering king Murchan, Caswallawn is stated to 
have entered his presence in a golden car, whence he stands 
recorded in the Triads as one of the three royal possessors 
of a golden car. In another of those vehicles of primitive 
history he is celebrated as one of the three eminently faithful 
lovers of the isle of Britain. 

In one Triad he is stated to have been one of the three 
elected chiefs of battle, or generalissimo, for the purpose of 
opposing the legions of Caesar, being the first instance of 
the kind recorded in British history. Dr. Owen Pughe 
remarks on this Triad — " whatever impression the disci- 
plined legions of Rome might have made on the Britons in 
the first instance, the subsequent departure of Caesar they 
considered as a cause of joyful triumph ; and it is stated 
that Caswallawn proclaimed an assembly of the various states 
of the island for the purpose of celebrating that event by 
feasting and public rejoicing." 

In another Triad, Caswallawn is recorded to have been 
one of the three Good Persecutors of the isle of Britain, 
on account of the long and harrassing warfare in which he 
persevered, to the grievous annoyance of the Romans, whom 
he aimed to sicken of residing in this island after its partial 
conquest. 



SAINT FRAID, 

ST. BRIDE, OR ST. BR IDGET, PATRONESS OF THE CHURCHES OF 
LLANSANTFRAID, ST. BRIDE'S, AND ST. BRIDGET'S. 

The name of this saint, and the numerous churches dedi- 
cated to her in Wales, under the designation of Llansaut- 
fraid, point to a period when the public mind was more 
impressed with veneration for supposed guardian angels and 
peculiar protecting saints, than agitated with matters of 
commercial enterprize, or any of those laudable schemes for 
improving the worldly condition of mankind, which in after- 
times distinguished the inhabitants of this island. In those 
dreamy days Wales might have vied with Spain and Por- 
tugal in their saint-admiring propensities — and, doubtless, 
there was no small matter of discussion that served to keep 
the national mind languidly awake respecting the supposed 
merits of some saints in preference to others. 

The two principal favourites in Wales, as patron saints, 
next to Dewi, or St. David himself, appear to have been 
St. Michael the archangel, to whom are dedicated all those 
churches bearing the name of Llanvihangel, and St. Fraid, 
the subject of this memoir, to whom so many sacred edifices 
and parishes owe their designation. 

Saint Fraid is the same pious personage who is known in 
England as St. Bridget and St. Bride, to whom the churches 
bearing those names have been devoted or dedicated. 

To the valuable researches of our respected contemporary, 
the Rev. Robert Williams, editor of that excellent work, the 
" Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen," which 
every patriot Welshman ought to possess, we stand indebted 
for the following information respecting the lady saint of 
this memoir : — 

" According to the ancient records quoted in Bonedd y 
Saint, she was the daughter of Cadwrthai, or Cadwthlach 
Wyddel, otherwise Dwyppws ab Cevyth. The Irish ac- 



ST. FRAID. 263 

counts state that she was born at Fochard, in the county of 
Louth, about A.D. 453, and that she was the illegitimate 
daughter of Dubtach, or Dubtachus, a man of considerable 
rank in his country. When she grew up, no importunities 
could prevail upon her to enter the married state, so she 
took the veil from the hands of St. Meb, a disciple and 
nephew of St. Patrick, who received her profession and 
vow of perpetual virginity. 

"She formed a religious community of her companions 
Who had been veiled with her, which increased so much, 
that she was obliged to erect several nunneries in many 
different parts of Ireland. Her fame spread through the 
British isles, and besides the numerous churches dedicated 
to her in Wales, there are several in England and Scotland, 
also in the Isle of Man, and especially in the Hebrides, 
near to Isla, a celebrated monastery was built to her honour, 
called Brigidiani. 

u Iorwyth Vynglwyd, a Welsh poet of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, has put her legend in verse, with the miracles 
attributed to her, which are printed in " Williams's History 
of Aberconwy."* ■ It is also to be found in English verse, 
in a work entitled "a Friend of Irish Saints;'' Patrick, 
Columba, and Bright, published at Louvain in 1647. Among 
other wonders it is said that she sailed over from the Irish 
coast on a green turf, and landing near Holyhead, at the spot 
now known as Towyn y Capel; the sod became a green 
hillock, on which she caused a chapel to be built which Was 
called after her name." f 

Here it appears to us exceedingly curious how a reputed 
holy personage, long before her appearance among her Welsh 
admirers, could have become so astonishingly popular, so in- 
tensely venerated for her imagined sanctity, as to inspire the 
people of every district in this country with a determination 
to build churches and chapels, and to dedicate them to this 
Irish abbess and saint. But the poetic legend and attributed 

* An octavo volume published at Denbigh in 1835. 
t " See an interesting account of Towyn y Capel, in the Journal of the 
Archaeological Institute, III, 223, by the Hon. W. Owen Stanley."-- Williams's 
Biographical Dictionary. 

Y 



264 ST. FRA1D. 

miracles explain all. In those palmy days of priestly im- 
posture, human credulity, and the general prostration of in- 
tellect among the people, we can conceive with what ardour 
the simple population listened to the legends setting forth 
the virtues of living saints, residing in remote places ; the 
more remote the better, as, even in that period of the infancy 
of human reason, a saint or a prophet was more honored afar 
than at home. No statement, however improbable or impos- 
sible, was too gross for the gullibility of the childish public, 
a miracle sanctioned and reconciled everything ; and woe to 
him who dared to express a doubt : he became the object of 
priestly vengeance, and a general mark of reprobation and 
persecution. To return again to Mr. Williams's account of 
the subject of this memoir; he says — 

" That she visited Wales at some period seems corroborated 
by the great veneration paid to her, for there are no less than 
eighteen i churches and chapels dedicated to her in the Prin- 
cipality, viz.— Disserth, in Flintshire ; Llansantfraid Glan 
Conwy, and Llansantfraid Glynceiriog, in Denbighshire ; 
Llansantfraid in Mechain, Montgomeryshire ; Llansantfraid 
Glyn Dwrdu, in Merionethshire ; St. Bride's, in Pembroke- 
shire; Llansantfraid, in Cardiganshire; Llansantfraid Cwm- 
mwd Deuddwr, and Llansantfraid in Elvael, Radnorshire ; 
Llansantfraid, in Breconshire; St. Bride^sJ^ajor, St.J3ride|s_ 
MjLoor, and St. Bride's supjerJSJai, ^.Glamorganshire; St. 
Bride or Llansantfraid, Skenfreth, St. Bride's in Netherwent, 
and St. Bride's Wentloog, in Monmouthshire; besides Capel 
Llansantfraid, now in ruins near Holyhead. 

Saint Fraid, St. Bride, or St. Bridget, died on the 1st of 
February, A- D. 5 2^ on which day, in Roman Catholic 
countries, her memory is celebrated." * 

* " There was another St. Bridged dy Saint Bridget of Sweden, who is often 
confounded with her, but she Uved|ma^y ages later."— Williams's Biographical 
Dictionary. \ t 



ST. FRAID. 



GENERAL NOTES TO SAINT FRAID. 



265 



Our ancient British saints are said to be held in an inferior degree of repute, in 
comparison with those whom Rome delights to honour, in consequence of 
the reputed non-payment of their canonization fees, although some of them 
have been admitted into the Roman calendar. This omission truly might well 
have been excused, as the requisition of such fees had not been established till 
ages after their era. However, to exhibit fairly the comparative merits of the 
two systems of saint-making we extract the following from Sir Culling Eardly' 3 
" Romanism in Italy." 

Ten thousand pounds for making a saint; — "the 
Beatification of Maria Frahcesca." 
This Is one of the cases where I need not name my authority, for the Roman 
Catholic Institute does not question the fact. I have been credibly informed 
that the beatification of this person cost the king of Naples ten thousand pounds 
sterling, which must have been expended, on the showing of the Institute, 
partly in "a spiritual process," and partly in a gorgeous ceremonial. 

Let us approach, however, the merits of the system of canonization, or 
recognising persons as saints. In the Bible the name of saint is given to 
every holy man. Error, however, began to creep in at an early period of 
Christian antiquity. Dupin, in his Ecclesiastical History of the tenth Cen- 
tury, says that " in the primitive church it was given to all christians in 
their life-time, and even after their death, when they died in communion of the 
church, having preserved their innocence of baptism.'' A more particular respect 
was shown to martyrs ; and, in process of time, the memory of virgins, an~- 
chorites, and bishops, renowned for their sanctity, were likewise honoured; and 
lastly the memory of those persons whose singular virtues were remarkable in 
their life-time. Their names were inserted in the diplych, and were recited at 
the altar, and they were styled by the title of " Saints," and *' blessed." Every 
particular church used to place in that rank those who had propagated the 
christian religion, the bishops, and those who had lived in great reputation for 
their sanctity. Afterwards calendars and martyrologies of the saints of several 
particular churches were made, which were by little and little dispersed through 
the eastern and western parts. The Church of Rome, as others had done, made 
use of these martyrologies, from which Ado composed his, and afterwards that of 
Usurandus. Some time elapsed before anything like authority was assumed in 
this matter. Dupin proceeds to say " it does not appear that before the tenth 
century any solemn decrees were made at Rome or elsewhere for the canoniza- 
tion of the saints. Indeed the custom was entirely established in the eleventh 
century. Pope Alexander III. first reserved to himself the canonization of 
saints as a matter of great consequence. In 1587 Sextus V. established ' the 
congregation of rites,' to take cognizance interalia of all canonizations. Under 
the arrangements made by him canonizations are now conducted. What a 
lesson does the above history leach us! When men once leave the Bible, where 
will they stop ? The church began by using the word 'saint' in an unscriptural 
sense, and has ended in demanding ten thousand pounds sterling for the expence 
of canonization" 

It appears that at one period the English entertained the whimsical fancy of 
having that wretched puppet of sovereignty, their Henry VI., made a saint. 
The enormous demands made by popedom for his intended canonization for- 
tunately brought John Bull to his senses, and caused him to button up his 
breeches pocket with the utmost indignation at the undisguised attempt to over- 



266 ST FRAID. 

reach him in a matter of barter, where the value to be received appeared so 
ludicrously insignificant in proportion to the high price demanded. Although, 
for the sake of dramatic effect, Shakespeare has shown the miserable Henry of 
Windsor in the light of a pious character, history more truly depicts him 
like his maternal grandfather, Charles VI. of France, whose malady he inherited, 
merely as a royal idiotic driveller ; remarkable also for incapacity for all the 
purposes of life, and at a period when the highest abilities were requisite to 
support him on the throne usurped by his grandfather. But in spite of the short 
comings of this wretched specimen of exalted humanity, Henry, it seems, had 
his admirers, who deemed him worthy of being sainted ; and as the poor thing 
had the merit of being harmless, he would doubtless have made a far more 
respectable saint than many devoid of that negative characteristic, who have 
the questionable honour of a place in the Roman Catholic Calendar. 






THE LADY HAWYS GADARN, 

GREAT GREAT GRANDAUGHTER OP OWEN CTVEILIOG, GREAT 
GRANDAUGHTER OF GWENWYNWYN, SOVEREIGN PRINCE 
OF POWYS; AND DAUGHTER OF OWEN AB GRIFFITH. 

Hawys Gadarn, or Hawys the intrepid, acquired the latter 

designation by executing a feat of spirited resolution, which 

well deserved whatever honor that appellation was intended 

to convey. Her mother died during her infancy ; she was 

brought up and educated under the care and immediate 

inspection of her father, at her paternal home, Cas tell Coch , ^?\tfl> J &^ft 

or the Red Castle,* which was the original name of Pqwy^ 

Ca s^ e ; the residence of the sovereign princes of Powys, of 

whom Owen ab Griffith was the lineal living descendant. 

By the evil working of the law of Gavel-kind, which had 
been convulsing the country and destroying its peace ever « i < 
since its enactment, by the decree of Roderic the Great, the J. } -''. 
soveveignt^sdJI^ixs^x na( * at l ^ s tRne hecome a matter 
ridiculous to contemplate. Besides the subdivision of the 
principality in the different generations preceding him, the 
live brothers of Owen ab Griffith claimed of him a new and 
equal division of the principality of Powys, in six several pro- 
portions, of which he was to retain only one. The natural 
jealousy attending such a distribution of allotments, made 
the supremacy of an elder brother, in such a case, far from 
an enviable position ; especially when the irascibility of ill 
regulated minds in a state of semi-barbarism from perpetual 
civil broils is taken into consideration. 

Probably annoyed beyond endurance by their turbulent 
opposition to his measures, disdaining- the foolery of such 
petty sovereignty, and perjiaj^sa^acj^iisl^foj'eseeing the 
impending conquest of the country by the English", Owen 
ab Griffith came to a resolution as singular for its origin- 
ality, as it ultimately proved wise and beneficial to his 
posterity, although to the eyes of his countrymen it ap- 

* So called from the colour of the stones of which it was built. 

y2 



268 THE LADY HAWYS GADAEN. 

peared at first nothing less than treason against his native 
land. The father of Hawys repaired to the parliament 
held at Shrewsbury, and re^ignedjhis-4emains and title 
to the English King Edward I. and received them again 
of him, to hold in capite and free Baronage, aecorTfing to > the 
custom of England. By this act, it is true, he extinguished 
his sovereignty, and became a mere English nobleman ;~but 
then he probably exchanged tranquility for empty state, and 
security both against foreign foes, domestic jars, and fra- 
ternal treachery. By this arrangement he baffled the cupis 
dity of those marauding English knights and nobbles who 
warred forjprey, and laid their account in dispossessing the 
native proprietors, and obtaining a gracious grant of their 
domains from the king. He also secured to himself and 
daughter a protection against the combinations and rapacity 
of his brothers. 

Soon after this act of abdication of sovereignty, Owen ab 
Griffith died, leaving his only child, his daughter Hawys, an 
orphan, still in her girlhood. 

In his last illness, with all the circumspective anxiety of 
an affectionate parent who was about to leave to the mercy 
of a harsh world his helpless girl, he devised by his will all 
his estates and property, still great for a subject, however 
diminutive for a prince, to his beloved and only jlaughter 
Hawys ; placing her, until she attained her majority, in the 
guardianship of her five uncles. Conscious as Owen was 
of the graspingpropensitiesof his brothers, his sagacity seems 
rather questionable in such an arrangement. It would seem 
however, that he naturally calculated that such a plurality 
of guardians would cause them to become checks upon each 
other ; and that his child was less likely to be wronged by 
so many, than if under the uncontrouled authority of merely 
one, or even two of those relatives. But human calculation, 
grounded on the most sage views of probability, cannot 
always be secure against the machinations of the selfish and 
unprincipled; as, unfortunately, was verified in this instance. 

The five brothers of the late Owen ab Griffith, and uncles 
of Hawys, were Llewelyn, John, Griffith Vychan, David, 
and William Lord of Mawddwy. .From some unknown 



THE LADY HAWVS GADARN. 269 

cause the latter refused to act, as one of the guardians of his 
niece, therefore the guardianship remained in the hands of 
her four first-named uncles. From the subsequent conduct 
of these unworthy abusers of a sacred trust, it would seem 
their brother William, whose entire conduct proved him a 
man of unimpeachable probity, excluded by them, was not 
of their council ; or that aware of their duplicity of charac- 
ter, he had purposely alienated himself from them ; disdain- 
ing to become a participator in any of their schemes of in- 
justice. In this decision he may appear somewhat blameable, 
as from his known worth and consequent hostility to their 
selfish and unjust measures, he might have proved their 
sturdy opponent and an available protector of the rights of 
his niece and ward. But his quietness of character appears 
to have unfitted him for contention with those, who agreeing 
so well together, he knew would always have it in their 
power to form majorities against him, in any good he might 
propose, favourable to the rights of Hawys : therefore the 
prudence of his withdrawal, all things considered, appears 
unquestionable. 

Gratified by the voluntary retirement of their brother 
William, the four uncles then laid their heads together, and 
formed a combination to deprive their youthful helpless 
charge of the possessions assigned by her father's will, which 
they arranged to divide among themselves, with an intention 
perhaps, common to such invaders of the property of female 
orphans, to seclude the poor girl for life in a Nunnery. 

In defence of their unworthy proceedings, this junto could 
certainly plead, that by the laws of Wales, a female was 
incapable of holding lands in that country, in her. own right. 
The statute of Rhyddlan (12th Edward 1.), recites that 
women were not dowerable by the laws of Wales. But the 
far-seeing shrewdness of Owen ab Griffith is here strikingly 
apparent ; it was evidently to protect his daughter against 
this deprivation, that he laid down his titular sovereignty 
and made himself a subject of the crown of England* There- 
fore, however tenaciously the guardians of Hawys might 
cling to the laws and usages of Wales, the laws of England, 



270 THE LADY HAWYS GADARN. 

to which, by her father's act, she became subjected, pro- 
tected her claims from the intended spoliation.* 

Young Hawys it appears was naturally gifted with strength 
of mind, and proved as quick-witted and prudent as she was 
beautiful. Not being insensible of the great wrong medi- 
tated against her by her uncles, she quietly nursed in her 
bosom a determined purpose of thwarting their probable in- 
tentions of injustice whenever circumstances warranted that 
her suspicions were well founded : and those worthy guar- 
dians did not keep her long in suspense. 

At that timejafiife when she was emerging from buoyant 
girlishness into blooming womanhood, it is probable that she 
sought from them a more liberal pecuniary allowance than 
she had been accustomed to receive. In answer to their 
evasive replies, she may have rejoined, with pouting pettish- 
ness as to the pressure of her present necessities, and ulti- 
mately referred, somewhat pointedly, to the approaching 
period when their controul would cease, and she should become 
her own mistress and succeed in her own rights to her father's 
lands. Such an appeal as this, which her circumstances 
have warranted us in imagining, would give these amiable 
relatives the opportunity which they desired of speaking 
out; a task however rendered difficult, by the awe-creating 
presence of the innocent victim, the helpless girl, whom 
they had preconcerted to despoil ; and it is easily conceiv- 
able how the audacity of these hoary elders quailed and 
lost the flush of insolence before the forceful truthfulness of 
her just claims. But the evil spirits of covetousness and 
fraud, in this instance, however abashed at first, unfortunately 
were of too tough materials to be finally put down, and on 

* Although by the laws of Wales women were not entitled to the dower of 
the lands- of the husband, they possessed a proportion of his effects, and that 
not only upon his death, but immediately upon the marriage ; aud they had a 
separate controul, and a sole disposal of their own personal property even during 
the life of the husband. Theophilus Jones remarks, " so fully was this right 
recognised that the Welsh married ladies could not be prevailed upon to part 
with it for nearly two centuries after the English laws were , i ntroduced. 
Several of the wills of testators in Breconshire, from 150 J to 170(J recapitulate 
and acknowledge debts due from, and to married women ; andTn others the 
husband admits that a sum or sums is due to his wife, by mortgage, bond, 
note, &c." 



THE LADY HAWYS GADAEN. 271 

rallying from their involuntary tribute to the majesty of 
truth, returned to the charge, trebly weaponed with the 
rude arms of impudence, insolence, and the assumption of 
unquestionable authority. At length, it is certain, out they 
spoke with a vengeance, and apprised her, that as a female, 
the laws of her native land forbade her the inheritance erro- 
neously devised to her by the will of her father. 

Her good uncles may have attempted to sooth her first 
out-burst of grief and indignation at such a beggaring an- 
nouncement, as Fraud is ever fond of Religion's tone and 
semblance to conceal the startling ugliness of her fiendish 
nakedness, by assuring her of their unchangeable regard for 
her present and future welfare. That there was still a 
goodly refuge for her, where with a devout and humbled 
mind, she might pass her days very happily — namely, the 
seclusion of a convent. Winding up their edifying discourse 
with a stern assurance that they had irrevocably destined 
her for a monastic life, and she mast forthwith prepare 
herself for quitting the world and entering a nunnery. 

However the reality of the explanatory scene between 
Hawys and her guardians may have differed from our con- 
jectures, the result of their conference is on record, and 
beyond dispute — they utterly denied her right to succeed 
to her father's domains; and this firm hearted Celtic 
maiden formed the heroic resolution of escaping from their 
power, and of throwing herself on the protection of 
Edward II., the reigning king of England. 

It is highly probable that she was counselled to adopt 
this course by her father, previous to his death, as he doubt- 
less anticipated the possibility of such an emergency ; and 
to this course, it is equally probable, her generous uncle 
William would have advised her, could they have met and 
conferred on a subject so momentous to her interests. But 
in the absence of direct information on the point we can 
only state what written records have warranted. 

It has been shown in the memoir of the Lady Emma 
wife of Griffith ab Madoc, that it was nothing uncommon 
for the natives of central Wales, or Powys, when oppressed 
by their own lords or chieftains, to appeal to the king of 



272 THE LADY HAWYS GADARN. 

England, to decide their differences ; their ancestors having 
acknowledged that sovereign as lord paramount of their 
principality, long before the final conquest of Wales by 
Edward I. But the resolution of a young female of imma- 
ture age to % from ji ex^hpme, and to venture on and per- 
severe in a journey of above two hundred miles ; and to 
appeal personally to the king, would appear almost too ro- 
mantic for an historical fact ; and were it not well authenti- 
cated, would be almost incredible. It proves, however, that 
Hawys Gadarn was no maudlin 

" Moppet, made of prettiness and pride, 
That oft'ner would her giddy fancies change, 
That glitt'ring dew-drops in the sun do colour."* 

While History is entirely silent as to the particulars of 
her flight, and the perils she may have encountered on the 
way, we are not prevented from surmising either their 
nature or extent. A^ saddled horse and an armed attendant 
were the fairest accommodations, that at least, her circum- 
stances could have commanded to aid her undertaking ; and 
with these, it is not improbable, but she might have been 
assisted. Butinanage when neither turnpike -roads, stage- 
coaches, nor roadside inns, were existent, and when robbers 
and desperadoes of many descriptions, were as " plentiful 
as blackberries" in their season, even with these supposed 
auxilliaries, her travelling cannot be conceived to have 
been very felicitous. Her occasional resting places were of 
course the monasteries, but as these edifices of ancient 
hospitality were often situated so very far apart, that many 
of her nights were doubtless spent in the open air, and 
probably while dozing on her saddle or slumoering on the 
damp earth. The worthies of her time, however, have 
recorded their impression of her daring flight and perilous 
journey, by the cognomen which they bestowed on her — 
the honourable surname of Gadarn, or the intrepid, or en- 
terprizing. The certain accomplishment of her journey, 
and its felicitous result, has been handed down to us, fairly 
recorded : she succeeded in being ushered into the presence 

* Rowe's Jane Shore. 



THE LADY HAWYS GADARN. 273 

of the king, who granted her petition, on the usual.terms 
dictated by English policy, that she should bestow her hand 
in marriage upon an Englishman. 

lit would appear that while Hawys was enduring that 
severest of inflictions on human patience, the tedious waiting 
for the presentation of her suit and self before the monarch 
whom she had chosen for her umpire, and to be the redresser 
of her wrongs, that a certain English nobleman found favour 
in her eye, and won an interest in her heart. This inter- 
esting personage proved to be Sir John Charleton, valectus 
regis, or gentleman of the bed-chamber to King Edward, 
and a native of Appley in Shropshire. 

This young nobleman being from the county adjoining 
the native country of Hawys (the modern Montgomeryshire), 
it may be presumed, even if she made a secret of her rank, 
that he must have felt compassion for the sufferings of a 
tender female, and admiration for the singular courage of 
one who had dared, in the face of many dangers and difficul- 
ties, to undertake such a journey ; independent of a more 
gentle sentiment, inspired by the free- graces of the dauntless 
mountain maiden. 

This young nobleman, during the uncertainty of her suit, 
and the dejection incidental to " the law's delay and the 
insolence of office,'* courteously soothed and cheered her 
into confidence ; did his utmost in forwarding her wishes, 
and ultimately ushered her into the royal presence, where 
her suit, as before stated, was provisionally granted. 

When Hawys, for the first time, was known to be a 
claimant of immense possessions, and a descendant of one of 
the sovereign-princes of Wales, it doubtless created a con- 
siderable sensation among the nobles, from whose order, it 
was understood, she was at liberty to select her future lord. 
The curious in heiresses among that proverbially hungry 
race, the courtiers, were immediately roused to an amazing 
pitch of anxiety. But of all the humming swarm whom the 
sunshine of fortune induced to buzz their adulatory congratu- 
lations on her success, and who strove to recommend them- 
selves to her favour, she encouraged only the modest 
advances of him who befriended her when only known as 



274 THE LADY HAWYS GADARtf. 

a distressed wanderer from the distant principality of Wales. 
On a second audience when required by the king to name 
among his nobles the knight of her cEbTce~,~Jor her future 
lord and champion of her rights, she unhesitatingly, and 
with smiling frankness, gave her hand to Sir John Charleton. 
Their union soon followed;* and to elevate him as a fitting 
match for the high-born lady, his sovereign created him 
Lord JPowys, of Powys castle, Montgomeryshire ; by which 
title he was summoned to parliament as a member of the 
House of Lords. 

The return of the Lady Hawys, attended by her gallant 
lord, with a gay and numerous company of knights and 
ladies, the whole protected by a strong division of men-at- 
arms, must have formed a striking contrast to her unfriended 
state on her flight and departure for England. Such an 
assemblage appearing suddenly at the gates of Powys Castle, 
may have rather disturbed the serenity of the j our old 
gentlemen-guardians and uncles of this illustrious heroine. 
It is ^probable the. appearance of the knights and men-at- 
arms rather intimidated them when required to decamp 
from their snug quarters, and to yield up every iota of the 
property of their late ward. 

However, notwithstanding the unexpected turn which 
affairs had taken, the four uncles of Hawys Gadarn deter- 
mined on resolute resistance, and prepared to take the field 
in defence of their usurpation. Anticipating such a result 
on their part from the representations of his lady, who was 
very capable of entertaining a just estimate of the qualities 
of her relatives, the gallant and cautious John Charleton had 
solicited from the king the aid of those troops which he had 
brought to Wales with him. Assisted by these he com- 
menced hostile movements, and soon broke up their measures • 
and succeeding in majmigj^soner^ of his~"wlfe's 

uncles, Llewelyn, John, and David, he placed them in safe 
custody in the king's castle of Harlech. 

Griffith Vychan, the fourth uncle, the most active and 
influential of the brothers, was still at large ; but the new 

* The union of Sir Joan Charleton with the Lady Hawys took place in the 
year 1268. 



THE LADY HAWYS GADARN. 2?5 

lord of Powys was determined not to rest till he had him 
also in his custod}'. According to Wynn, he obtained a 
writ from the king to the sheriff of Shropshire, and to 
Sir Roger Mortimer, lord of Chirkland, and justiciary of 
North Wales, for the apprehension both of Griffith Vychan 
and his sons-in-law Sir Roger Chamber and Hugh Mont- 
gomery, all of whom were then in active hostility against the 
Lord of Powys and his wife the Lady Hawys. 

What seems rather curious in this matter is, to find so 
many of the English nobility involved in this affair, and in 
alliance with the refractory uncles, but when the characters 
of the different parties are considered, our wonder will 
speedily vanish. Speculation in Welsh heiresses that could 
give title to lands and lordships, was a very animating prin- 
ciple among the Anglo-Norman barons of this period, se- 
condary only to that of forcible appropriation, according to 
the sword- in-hand, or robber's law of the day, current then 
in England for the spoliation of Wales. Aware of the 
master-passion, the grasping rapacity, which governed the 
minds of these worthies, it is probable that before the actual 
marriage of Hawys, these cunning uncles held out prospects 
to different individuals of winning the hand of their highly 
dowered niece, with a portion of her lands, as the price of 
their interference and aid ; a promise subjected to deep 
reservation — either to be evaded altogether, or very stint- 
ingly fulfilled, according to the duplicity of such tricksters 
when their turns are served. 

But the restless activity and acute measures of the hus- 
band of Hawys frustrated all their schemes, disarmed their 
opposition, and broke the confederacy to pieces. 

In an age when neither an Official Gazette nor the Daily 
Papers could carry abroad the occurrences at court, the 
marriage of the lady of our memoir must have remained a 
considerable time uncertified to the remote districts of the 
kingdom, which may account for the English partizanship 
not being sooner withdrawn from the indefatigable Griffith 
Vychan, the fourth uncle. But when once convinced of 
the certainty of that event, under the patronage of the king, 
it is natural to surmise that the English nobility would no 

z 



2jO THE LADY HAWYS GADARN. 

longer waste their time in useless contention for an unat- 
tainable object, nor appear hostile to a measure which their 
sovereign had sanctioned, under the peril of being attainted 
as rebels. Thus we learn from Wynn that " Griffith Vychan 
and his accomplices, suspecting their own strength,* from 
having lost Thomas, earl of Lancaster, their main support, 
thought it most advisable to submit themselves to the king's 
pleasure, touching the difference between them and Hawys." 
Another consideration which is said to have determined 
them on the adoption of this course was, they found upon 
record that Griffith ab Meredith an ancestor of the lady 
Hawys, upon his submission to Henry I., became subject 
to the king of England, and thereupon was created baron 
of Powys, which barony he and his posterity had ever since 
held in capite from the king. 

To account for this new plea and assertion of an anterior 
subjection of a former prince of Powys to the king of Eng- 
land, we can only surmise, that in the hour of peril from 
intestine broils, the ancestor of Hawys may have laid down 
his Welsh royalties for an English lordship, but resumed 
his original dignities, without consulting the king of England 
when the star of his destiny was in .the ascendant, and the 
day of danger passed away. Otherwise there would have 
been no necessity for the father of Hawys to have again 
performed the ceremony of homage, as by the act of his 
ancestor he was already an English subject. 

Whether the plea of anterior subjection to England was 
well or ill founded, the act of Griffith ab Owen himself 
secured for his daughter the protection of English law. 
This, the four refractory uncles jcould very well foresee, 
and they were sagacious enough to be feelingly aware that 
this view of the question was put forward at the dictation 
of the stronger party, the English ; and what they would 
have to be law, was, and should be law against all cavillers. 
Therefore 41 Griffith Vychan and his abettors shrewdly con- 
sidered, that if the matter came to be argued in a court of 
law that the point at issue would be decided against them, 
as it was evident, according to English law, that Hawys 
* Queiy weakness. 



THE LADY HAWYS CADARN. 2 (( 

had more right to her father's possessions, lands included, 
than they could possibly pretend. 

It would appear that the rapacity of lawyers, and the 
terrort of expense in a court of law, were as awful evils in 
the twelfth century as in the nineteenth, and proved quite as 
effective in restraining the animosities of the contentious 
within the boundaries of prudence. Influenced by such 
considerations, as much as misgivings respecting the final 
result, the present parties came to a aetermination of com- 
posing their differences as amicably as possible, without 
subjecting themselves to the innumerable perils attendant 
on a trial at law . 

It was ultimately agreed that Hawys should enjoy her 
inheritance in fee simple, to her and her heirs for ever, after 
the tenure of England. And that her uncles, Llewelyn, 
John, David, and Griffith Vychan, should enjoy their re- 
spective portions, and the same to descend to their heirs male 
only, perpetually ; but in the default of heirs male, the same 
was t ) descend to Hawys and her heirs. 

Having at length passed over these jarrings, both of law 
and lances, it is pleasant to return to our notice of the fifth 
uncle of Hawys, horilst William, familiarly among his 
friends called Wilcox Mawddy ; the popular lord of that 
locality, who so creditably kept aloof from the sinister 
designs of his unworthy brothers. It is probable, as before 
hinted, that her kind uncle William counselled her, in the 
first instance, to make her escape from the power of her 
guardians, and aided her in her dangerous and spirited flight. 
But unfortunately we have no written evidence of such 
liberal dee^s, which appear, however so congenial to the 
generosity of lUs character. Of the cordiality ot his recep- 
tion at Powys castle there can be no doubt, as we find it 
recorded that the gratitude of Hawys and her husband 
towards him was manifested by the favourable terms 
awarded him in the ultimate settlement of their family dis- 
pute. All his lands and other possessions were confirmed 
to him for ever, and all his heirs, male or female, to succeed 
in due relation, to the end of his line. 

This William, lord of Mawddy married his kinswoman 



278 THE LADY HAWYS GADARN. 

Elianor, who was the sister of Ellen, the mother of our cele- 
brated hero, Owen Glendower, both ladies lineally descended 
from Rhys ab Tewdwr, king of South Wales, who fell in 
battle against the Norman invaders of Glamorganshire. 

Hawys Gadarn and her English lord proved liberal patrons 
of the public institutions of their time. Hawys is especially 
mentioned as a benefactress of monastic establishments; 
and she is recorded to have made the first movement for 
the erection of the mdhastery of the Grey Friars in the town 
of Shrewsbury. 

It appears the lady Hawys departed this life before the 
year 1353, which was the time of her husband's death* 
deeply lamented by her family and friends, and regretted 
by a vast number who had been befriended by her benefac- 
tions. She was interred in the convent of the Grey Friars, 
Shrewsbury. 

John Charleton, lord of Powys, had issue by his wife 
Hawys, a son named John, who enjoyed the lordship about 
seven years ; and then left it to his son of the same name, 
who was lord of Powys fourteen years. The estate and 
title then descended to his son, John Charleton the third, 
who held them twenty-seven years*; when dying without 
issue, the lordship of Powys fell to his brother, Edward 
Charleton. The particulars of a long train of descendants 
from this marriage are to be found in Wynne's History of 
Wales. In our memoir of Lady Mary Herbert in this work 
may* be traced the successors of this family in the lordship 
of Powys, up to t^^resent^possessorsjthe Clives, descended 
from the modern hero of England's wars in India, 



ELLEN GETHIN, 

DAUGHTER OF VAUGHAN OP HERGEST, HEREFORDSHIRE, AND 
WIFE OF THOMAS AB ROSSER (SON OF SIR ROGER VAUGHAN, 
OF TRETOWER, AND THE LADY GWLADYS.) AND GRANDSON 
OF SIR DAVID GAM. 

The family name of this lady was Vaughan, but a remark- 
able act of vengeance perpetrated by her in the days of her 
maidenhood, caused her ever after to be called Ellen Gethin, 
or gllen the Terri^ e. The latter appellation, so far from 
being intended as a stigma of disgrace, was meant as an 
honorary designation ; and although by her marriage in after 
years sn*e was ej^led^tojjie^ she still 

retained , p roud ly as the warrior who is honoured by his 
sovereign with a title of honour, for heroic deeds in battle, 
the unchangeable name of Ellen Gethin. 

She was the daughter of a gentleman of the name of 
Vaughan, who possessed an estate and mansion in Hereford- 
shire, called Herast or IJergest, where with an only brother 
named David, she was borrilmd brought up, in the reign of 
King- Henr yJ/X After the death of their parents, David 
succeeded to his father's estate, and it seems Ellen was 
living with her brother , who was unmarried, at Hergest, at 
the time when the fatal affray about to be related took 
place. 

David Vaughan was Ellen's junior, and a fine spirited 
young man ; and there appears to have been much affection 
between the brother and sister, who lived together in great 
harmony, opulence, and respectability. 

Another branch of the familv of the Vaughans (or Vychans 
as th e namfi^j>a>aa^ajicjently written), of equal standing in 
respectability, opulence, and consequence, resided at Tal- 
garth, in the county of Brecon. It would appear that there 
existed a degree of rivalry between the two houses, of so 
touchy and inflammable a nature, that a breath, at any time, 
might blow it into a blaze of animosity. The subjects of 

z 2 



280 ELLEN GETHItf. 

dispute between these hot-headed personages, were worthy 
of the rudeness and insolence of that semi-barbarous feudal 
age, and characteristic of the Celtic family pride, when brute 
force supplanted the claims of justice and the decisions of 
reason. Which was the senior, and consequently the domi- 
nant branch of the family — which was possessed of the most 
extensive lands, forests of timber, and other sources of 
property — which was the most renowned for martial deeds 
in ages past, or the most opulent, capable, or respectable at 
present — or which was the best man at running, fighting, 
shooting, drinking, &c, became the fruitful source of many 
an unworthy brawl and violent altercation, settled only by 
an appeal to arms. The discomfited in one quarrel sought 
the earliest opportunity of avenging their disgrace by origi- 
nating another feud ; and thus there wasjrio end to their 
mutual heart-burnings and violent proceedings; and their 
respective partizans often became compromised in the ani- 
mosity of their chiefs, and fought, bled, and died in quarrels 
not their own, till the whole land was tainted with the evil 
spirit and wrathful propensities of the times. 

The heads of the two houses of the Vaughans rarely met, 
and then only by chance; for each party was too proud 
either to seek or shun a meeting, when any unforeseen cir- 
cumstances brought them together. At the time of which 
we are treating, the elder chiefs of the two families were 
deceased, and the present representatives were two young 
men v David Vaughan of Herast, brother of the lady of this 
memoir, and Shon Heer,* or John the tall, so called from 
his great stature, son of the late Philip Vaughan of Talgarth. 

It happened that these two cousins met by chance, at a 
place in Radnorshire called Llinwent, situate near the 
village of Llanbister. The probability is, that they entered 
together one of those houses of entertainment known in 
their time as a Wine Hous e,t and in a spirit of apparent 
good-humour and hilarity, perhaps, at first, commenced 

* The orthography of this name in Welsh is Sion Hir, but pronounced as we 
have given it, Shon Heer. ^"~ 

t For an account of the nature of a " Wine house," the reader is referred to 
the Memoir of Catherine, wife of levan ab Robert, in this work. 



ELLEN GETHIN. 281 

drinking and conversation. After bandying about their 
jests, rough and smooth, for a while, accompanied by those 
frequent potent draughts, that proverbially " take the reason 
prisoner," the irritating topics which their fathers loved, all 
springing from the old family grudge, were touched upon, 
and produced the usual consequences ; claims of superiority 
and precedence being urged by the one and opposed by the 
other, till the fury of altercation wrought animosity to its 
utmost height. At length the enraged cousins rushed out 
of doors to settle their dispute by an appeal to their swords. 
Having fought desperately for some time, Shon Heer, being 
the oldest as well as the most strong and powerful of the 
two, seemed to gain the advantage, notwithstanding the 
superior dexterity of his smaller and slighter kinsman ; and 
in the end David Vaughan fell, mortally wounded, and 
immediately died. 

Ellen Gethin appears to have been a woman of keen 
sensibility, strong passions, and, as it ultimately proved, of 
dauntless resolution. When the melancholy tidings of her 
beloved brother's death, by the hand of her cousin, reached 
her, she gave way for a while to the violent transports of her 
grief, deeply mingled with hatred for his destroyer ; whom 
she also viewed in the light of the triumphant enemy of her 
house, of which she was now become the sole representative. 
The latter consideration, aided by her tender recollections 
of her beloved brother David, seems to have worked power- 
fully on her mind, and stimulated her to a determination of 
vengeance. In one of her paroxisms of resentment, dis- 
daining all the consolation offered by her friends, and we 
may suppose, the duty of resignation urged by her clerical 
advisers, she solemnly vowed to accomplish the death of him 
who had been the destroyer of her brother. Besides the 
impulse of her headlong will, and the suggestions of hatred 
against the representative of the rival house, who now, as 
she felt, triumphed over her own — which was become 
desolate and lonely, save the faint vitality imparted to it by 
her own existence, she indulged the fatal idea so prevalent 
in her day, and not extinct iu the present, that she had a 
sacred duty to fulfil, in order to appease the manes of her 



282 ELLEN GETHIN. 

brother, and to blot out the insult to her line of kindred by 
the terrible revenge, the deed of blood which she meditated. 

In those days of la wless violence, no notice was taken by 
the authorities of the times of the fatal affray which we 
have described; and in a few weeks after its occurrence, 
Shon Heer, according to the resolute audacity of his cha- 
racter, ever ready to repel as to give offence, went about his 
business and his pleasures as if nothing extraordinary had 
happened, without the slightest expectation of being ques- 
tioned, much less molested on the occasion. It is not un- 
likely but that he felt himself exonerated from blame, and 
that he considered the result of the duel both fortunate for 
himself and by no means blameworthy on his part, towards 
his adversary, who fell, as he conceived, in a fair fight. The 
latter part of his probable reflections might not be ill- 
founded, as nothing unfair had been imputed to him, or 
censure passed, except, possibly, casual reflections on his 
intemperate conduct and quarrelsome disposition, which led 
to the affray; and the exception which might be taken to 
the disparity of the comparative strength and size of the 
combatants. 

It was some weeks after this tragic catastrophe that 
Ellen Vaughan gained the information she required, in 
answer to the inquiries which she had instituted, respecting 
the movements of her cousin, whom she had so bitterly 
devoted to destruction. Having learnt from the spies whom 
she had set to dog his steps and discover his intentions, that 
on a certain day Shon Heer was engaged to " sh oot a match /' 
as they called aiming at a target with bows an a" arrows, 
with a party of young men in the shooting ground attached 
to a wine-house, at a place called Llandewi, or David's 
Church, in the adjoining county of Radnor, and situated a 
short distance from Llinwent, the scene of the late affray. 

On the reception of this intelligence she prepared a suit 
of male attire for a disguis e, and on the appointed day 
sallied forth towards the place indicated, with sword at her 
side, cap and feather, according to the fashion of the time, 
and the usual appendages of a young gentleman of no 
ordinary pretensions. As in her journey thither she had to 



ELLEN GETHIN. 283 

pass Llinwent, where her brother's blood had so lately 
saturated the earth, the stern resolution with which she had 
steeled her heart and braced her woman's nerves, we may 
conceive, received redoubled impulse from the affecting 
recollection ; and she hurried on, unattended it would seem, 
intensely devoted to revenge, but at the same time generously 
resolved not to implicate others in the consequences, what- 
ever they might be, of her desperate undertaking. 

When she arrived at the place, thenceforth destined to a 
melancholy celebrity, she found the whole party at the 
shooting ground, in full enjoyment of their exciting sport, 
where merriment, spirit, and hilarity, seemed to animate 
every bosom. Finding that her cousin, her hated and 
doomed cousin, in several successive matches had been de- 
clared the hero of the day, or " master of the field," as the 
term went, for the most expert and successful feats of 
archery, with an effort at the semblance of easy effrontery, 
and a slight display of spirit in imitation of the off-hand 
manners of the young gallants present, she boldly chal- 
lenged the best on the ground to shoot a match with her. 
Treating the matter as a personal appeal to himself, Sh6n 
Heer immediately accepted the challenge, and as a point of 
courtesy towards a stranger, however presumptious in his 
bearing, invited h er to shoo t first, as soon a > she was suited 
with the weapmiT^lieTiadsomewhat fastidiously selected. 
Declining the offer, Shon Heer seized his bow, fixed his 
arrow, and with his usual masterly execution, shot it into 
the very centre of the bull's eye. " There," cried the 
Vaughan of Talgarth, in the pride of his achievement^ 
" beat that if you can !" 

11 Til try, v was the ready reply, muttered hoarsely be- 
tween her teeth, in a resolute undertone, by the assumption 
of which she sought to smother the rising agitation which 
she feared might render her voice tremulous and so betray 
her sex, disguise, and determined purpose. After fixing the 
arrow firmly in the centre of the bow, she appeared to be 
taking a very deliberate aim at the target, towards which 
every eye was anxiously directed ; when suddenly she 
turned to the right and faced Shon Heer, with her shaft 



ELLEN GETHIN, 

directed towards him ; instantly drawing her bowstring to 
its utmost stretch, with heart and hand resolved on deadly- 
doing, away flew the arrow, true to the mark she had fixed 
on, and pjpj^p<ljigr_ nonsln fn J[jlfi, h°* rt 

Amidst the consternation and confusion which ensued 
she made her escape. But Ellen, henceforth to be known 
only as Ellen Gethin, made no secret of the matter, but 
triumphed in the vengeance she had so daringly taken, and 
proclaimed herself the avengeress of her brother's death. 

It would appear that the feud between these rival families 
ended here, as there is no record of any further vengeance 
taken by the Vaughans of Talgarth for this dreadful act of 
assassination. That house seems to have declined from this 
period, as the house of Hergest revived, and acquired greater 
celebrity than ever, although the name was changed by the 
marriage of its female representative. It is curious to 
observe, as a striking contrast pre'sentednHne spirit of those 
times and the present, that the very deed which in these days 
would have consjfrned Ellen Gethin to the gallows, 
and her memory to abhorence and execration, in her own 
age recommended her to the admiraikffi of her contem- 
poraries. It is true she was now become a great heiress, 
and the sole repcsentative of the house of Hergest ; but 
whether it was from the idea of heroism attached to her 
name, for so daringly avenging the wrongs of her family, or 
from more selfish considerations, certain it is that she was 
sought in marriage by the sons of some of the first families 
in the adjoining counties. Ultimately she gave her hand to 
Thomas ab Rosser, the second son of Sir Roger Vaughan,* 
Knight, of Tretower, " in the county of Brecon, a military 
man illustriously descended ; and in him acquired a 
champion capable of defending her fame and rights. 

The grandeur, affluence, hospitality, and high consider- 
ation of the house of Hergest, were celebrated in numerous 
poems yet extant, by a bard of the time, the renowned 

* Sir Roger Vaughan, as elsewhere observed, was the first husband of the 
Lady Gwladys, who fell, with his father-in-law, Sir David Gam, at the battle 
of Agincourt; for the particulars of their feats of heroism see the memoirs of 
that celebrated woman in this work. 



ELLEN GETHIN. 285 

Lewis Glyncothi, the warmest tributes of whose ardent 
muse were showered on its different members. From this 
happy marriage Ellen Gethin became the mother of a family 
of three sons ; but had to lament the premature death of 
her second son, Richard Rosser; and at length, of her 
affectionate husband, when he had attained sixty years of 
age, who fell at the battle of Danesmore, between the 
partizans of the houses of York and Lancaster. 

It certainly can neither be fair, judicious, nor philoso- 
phical, to try Ellen Gethin, a woman of the fifteenth century, 
at the bar of public opinion, before a jury of that of the 
nineteenth. Yet she stands charged by a modern author 
with "ferocity" of character; and is further stigmatised 
by him as "a devilish woman," 'without making due 
allowance for the spirit of the age in which she flourished.* 

It has been objected to Nell Gwynn and other " beauties 
of the court of Charles II.,'' that they were habitually guilty 
of such gross vulgarity as swearing, and using^hrases of 
the most unfeminine and indelicate description ; but the 
objection has been well answered, that in their time such 
conduct was scarcely remarkable, much less severely 
censurable, as almost evetry " lady of quality/' was guilty 
of the same offences agaibst morality and good manners. 
The charges so unwisely made against the lady of this 
memoir forms a parallel case. Far be it from us to defend, 
or extenuate the degree of heinousness attached to the 
murderous deed recorded of Ellen Gethin ; but we contend, 
that as she lived in an age the most terribly conspicuous in 
our annals for ferocious doings, when a long civil war had 
brutalised mankind, and the most murderous revenge of a 
family insult was considered in the light of an heroic virtue, 
we, a people of nearly four hundred years further advanced 
in civilisation, have no right to decide on her conduct, 

* In Lewis's Typographical Dictionary, article " Glasbury, " stands the 
record to which we refer; it runs thus : — " A singular instance of the ferocity 
of one of the female descendants of the Vaughan family is preserved in an old 
manuscript pedigree. Ellen Gethin of Hergest, a devilish woman, was cousin- 
germ an to John Hir ap Philip Vaughan, who was killed by the said Ellen at 
David's Church, for that he before had killed her brother at Llinwent, in 
Llanbister, Radnorshire." 



286 ELLEN GETHIN. 

according to the standard of public opinion in our own 
times. 

Had the poems of the Welsh bard, Lewis Glyncothi, been 
earlier known to our English historical writers, as his Celtic 
muse is ever the handmaid of history in recording the 
prevalent feelings, as well as the warlike occurrences of his 
times, his authority must, in a considerable degree, have 
influenced their writings. In his manifold compositions 
the instances are numerous where he holds of bloodshedding 
revenge as most commendable of virtues. In his elegy on 
the death of Meredith ab Morgan ab Sir David Gam, he 
commences with wondering that no one had come forward 
to avenge the premature death of that gallant young man ; 
notwithstanding that he is stated to have fallen in fair 
warfare, during a skirmish between the abettors of the rival 
roses. As one wearied of delay, the bard opens his poem 
with great spirit, demanding the reason of such neglect. 
" The least punishment/' he says, S* that could be executed 
upon his enemies, was toihave sacrificed the lives of twelve of 
them, but not even this had been done.''* Without citing 
further examples, a reference to Sir John Wynn's History of 
the Gwydir family, a contemporary of the bard whom we have 
quoted, and to the English history of the period in question, 
will bear us out in the assertion, that the conduct of Ellen 
Gethin, however censurable in a moral and religious point 
of view, refined also by the more correct habits of thinking 
and acting in our day, was scarcely extraordinary for the 
fifteenth century ; and that she deserves not to be branded 
by the pen of history as ** a devilish woman." 

As a necessary addenda to this memoir, descriptive of the 
t imes of Elle n Gethin, we here append a brief account of the 
circumstances which led to the fatal battle that deprived her 
of her unfortunate but gallant husband, Thomas ab'Rosser, 
the father of her three sons. 

This was the epoch, as before observed, of the great civil 
commotions of England, between the rival houses of York 
and Lancaster, called the wars of t he roses. These desola- 

* Rev. John Jones, editor and partial translator 'of the poems of Lewis 
Olyncothi. 



EliLEN GETHIN. 287 

ting contentions appeared to have been brought to a close m 
the year 1461, when the house of Lancaster lost the sove- 
reignty by the deposition and imprisonment of Henry VI., 
and Edward IV. commenced his reign. The latter monarch 
had worn the crown eight years, when a certain party 
determined on dethroning him, and commenced their ope- 
rations accordingly. These powerful conspirators were the 
celebrated earl of Warwick, his two brothers, the archbishop 
of York, and John Neville, marquis of Montague, with the 
king's own brother, George, duke of Clarence. The open- 
ing of their conspiracy, which was a renewal of the wars of 
the roses, commenced with an insurrection in Yorkshire, 
thus narrated in the pages of Rapin : — 

" In the beginning of October, 1469, there was a sedition 
in Yorkshire, which all the historians ascribe to the secret 
practices of the marquis of Montague and his brother the 
archbishop of York,* the occasion or pretence was this. 
There was in the city of York an hospital, for the main- 
tenance whereof the whole city had always contributed, with- 
out, however, being obliged. In time these voluntary contribu- 
tions were changed into a kind of right, wholly founded 
upon custom, and for which there were collectors appointed, 
They who had been bribed to stir up the people artfully 
spread a report that the contributions were misapplied, and 
served only to enrich the directors of the hospital. That 
besides, the hospital being sufficiently endowed, these col- 
lections were needless. Whereupon the country people 
took fire, as if it had been an affair of the utmost importance. 
They assembled to the number of fifteen thousand, and 
killing some of the collectors marched towards York, under 
the command of one Robert Huldern. Upon this news the 
marquis of Montague, who resided at York, assembling a 
body of the citizens, sallied out upon the rebels, slew a 
great number, and taking their leader prisoner, ordered his 
hand to be struck off. This conduct would give occasion 
to presume the sedition was not raised by himself, had not 
his after proceedings been less ambiguous. 

" The first rumour of this commotion made the king ap- 

* Hume denies that "Warwick himself had any hand in this outbreak. 
2 A 



ELLEN GETHIN. 

preheasive of the consequences. Indeed the cause was not 
very important, hut knowing how numerous the Lancas- 
terian partj' still were, he did not doubt but it was raised by 
some lord, friend to that house. However, he was very far 
from mistrusting his brother and the earl of Warwick to be 
the chief authors. Whatever the issue might be, he 
dispatched orders to William, earl of Pembroke, governor 
of Wales,* to assemble all the forces of those parts, and 
keep himself ready to march. Meantime, the Yorkshire 
malcontents, rather animated than discouraged at the ill 
success of their first attempt, took arms again, and set at 
their head Henry, son of the Lord Fitzhaugh, and Henry 
Neville, son of the Lord Latimer. These two young 
leaders had not much experience, but were directed by Sir 
John Conyers, a person of great conduct and valour, and 
well versed in the art of war. Their first project was to 
make themselves masters of York ; but suddenly altering 
their resolution and route they marched towards London, 
not at all doubting that their army would be increased by 
the way, as it really happened. Then it was that the affair 
of York hospital appeared to have been only a pretence to 
draw the people together. For the hospital afforded the 
seditious no manner of pretence to take the route to 
London. 

Meanwhile the earl of Pembroke having drawn together 
about ten thousand men, principally Welsh, began his 
march in quest of the malcontents. t He was joined on the 
road by the Lord Stafford with eight hundred archers. 
The two armies being come near one another, the earl of 
Pembroke sent Sir Richard Herbert, his brother, with a 
detachment of two thousand horse, to view the enemy as 
near as possible. Sir Richard, who was a very good officer, 
executed his orders with great conduct, without exposing 
himself, however, to be attacked. But his men, who had 

* Half brother to Ellen Gethin's husband. 

f When he came to Llandilo-vawr, Carmarthenshire, Earl Herbert made his 

mi the altar in the church, reserving four thousand marks of Ills own 

money, in pocket, to defray expenses.— Jones's A'otes to Lewis Glyncothi's 

■:u Works. 



ELLEN GETHIX. 289 

not his experience, preposterously imagining he would lose 
a fair opportunity to defeat the enemies, fell, against his 
will, upon their rear. But Sir John Conyers who foresaw 
this indiscretion, was so well prepared that the detachment 
was routed with great loss. 

King Edward hearing this news wrote to the earl of 
Pembroke not to be discouraged for so inconsiderable a loss, 
assuring him he would come in person and join him, or send 
a strong reinforcement. Meanwhile the seditious, finding 
they had near them an army which might daily increase 
and fearing to meet the king in the way, resolved to return 
to Warwick, where, very likely, the leaders knew they should 
be received. But the earl of Pembroke, impatient to have 
his revenge, marched directly towards them, and forced 
them to halt upon Danesmoor, near Hedgecot, and within 
three miles of Banbury, where the two armies encamped at 
a small distance one from the other. 

The earl of Pembroke's impatience to have his vengeance,, 
one of his most striking characteristics, led him into another 
indiscretion, impossible in either case to be committed by a 
truly great man or a competent general. At a season like 
this, a night preceding an eventful battle, when great com- 
manders have usually been described as firmly tranquil, 
while concentrating their entire energies on the momentous 
business of the morrow ; at such a moment the Demon of 
Discord interrupted the harmony which should have reigned 
at the head quarters of the king's general and his officers. 
Indeed it seems as if the evil genius of the Herberts had 
been doing his work of obstruction from the commencement 
of this ill-fated expedition, against what at first seemed a 
mere handful of rioters. According to Hall, it was agreed 
among the commanders, that whoever first possessed himself 
of an inn for his quarters, should keep it, and not be liable to 
be turned out ; yet, notwithstanding such settlement of the 
point, when the royal army entered Banbury, the earl of 
Pembroke presuming on his superiority of rank as com- 
mander-in-chief, most uncourteously, nay, forcibly, took 
possession of the inn where Lord Stafford had established 
himself ; a house, in fact, that was kept by a mistress of this 



290 ELLEN GETHIN. 



his 



nobleman. It was, literally, like turning him out of 
own house. But there is no adequate excuse to be offered 
for the conduct adopted by Lord Stafford in consequence of 
this usage. Forgetting his public duty, in the bitterness of 
this private quarrel, he withdrew from the scene of contest, 
and took with him his eight hundred archers, 

" On the morrow, at break of day, the malcontents 
marched in good order to attack the king's army. They 
had heard by deserters of the Lord Stafford's retreat, and 
were resolved to improve it. Henry Neville, son of Lord 
Latimer, one of their generals, advancing in order to engage, 
for fear the royalists should retire, was fiercely repulsed, 
made prisoner, and slain in cold blood. This barbarous 
action inspiring the northern men with a sort of fury, they 
rushed upon their enemies, and notwithstanding the valour 
of Sir Richard Herbert, who performed that day actions 
extolled by all historians, the king's army was put to the 
rout."* 

The Welsh poet Lewis of Glyncothi, who was an officer 
in the army of Edward IV., calls it a most strenuously con- 
tested battle, and asserts it was through heedlessness the 
field was lost. Notwithstanding that the desertion of Lord 
Stafford contributed greatly to weaken the army of the 
Yorkists, yet there were other circumstances that aided to 
cause their overthrow. The following statement, from 
Baker's History of Northamptonshire, throws a strong light 
on the subject. " Victory was on the point of declaring for 
the Welshmen, when a ruse de guerre turned the fortune of 
the day. John Clapham, Esq., one of the retainers of the 
earl of Warwick was seen mounting up the eastern hill • 
though only attended by five hundred of the rabble from 
Northampton and the neighbouring villages, he displayed in 
front the banner of the earl, with the white bear and ragged 
staff, and his followers raising a shout of ' a Warwick ! a 
Warwick!' the Welshmen thinking the great earl was 
actually advancing with his forces, fled in utter dismay, and 
were slain by their pursuers without mercy, insomuch that 
five thousand were left dead in the field, including Sir 
* Rapin's History of England. 



ELLEN GETHIST. 291 

Roger Vaughan, Henry ab Morgan, Thomas ab Rosser, 
husband of Ellen Gethin, and Watkin Thomas, son of Sir 
Roger Vaughan. Among the prisoners were the earl of 
Pembroke and his brother Sir Richard Herbert, who, with 
ten other gentlemen, were taken to Banbury, and there 
beheaded." * 

Lewis Glyncothi's elegy on the death of Thomas ab 
Rosser, is thus referred to by his translator, the Rev. Tegid 
Jones. " This poem commemorates the battle of Danes- 
moor. It opens with stating it to have been one of the most 
bravely contested engagements that ever took place in 
Christendom ; and in the next moment we are told how it 
was lost ; and what dreadful havoc the enemy committed 
there among the Welsh. The bard carries us, as it were, 
into the scene of the conflict ; and we can fancy we hear the 
war-shout of the different battalions, and the clashing of 
arms. He describes the lord of Hergest and his division as 
having fought and suffered desperately, and how he fell at 
the head of his men, like Arthur who was slain at the battle 
of Camlan. He next alludes to the valour, -the mighty- 
personal strength, and the virtues of the lord of Hergest. 
After mentioning the death of others who fell in the battle, 
he records the lamentation of Ellen Gethin, the widow of 
the deceased; and promises that the death of her ld*rd should 
be speedily avenged by his three sons." 

The din and tumult of the battle, as well as the mob-like 
clamour of these ill disciplined armies, may be conceived 
from the following portion of the poem : " There was heard 
one simultaneous shout, a crying out among the mighty 
spearmen, some calling Herbert ! some Henry! others War- 
wick! and some "our Edward!" (i. e. Edward IV.) Mr 
Jon. s remarks on the latter part of this passage ; — " from 
the bard's introducing here the pronoun ni f our ; and also 
fro. n his employing his pen to lament the fall of the parti- 

* Thus it appears that instead of being beheaded, like his half brothers the 
two Herberts, as erroneously stated in various accounts, Thomas ab llosser the 
husband of Ellen Gethin, fell at the head of his division, while in the act of 
charging the enemy. For an interesting account of the last moments of the 
earl of Pembroke and his brother Sir Richard Herbert, see the close of the 
" memoirs of Gwenhwyvar" in thi3 work. 

2 a 2 



ELLEN GETHIN. 

zans of Edward, one would be inclined to infer that he was a 
Yorkist. But as he is reported to have been a Lancasterian, 
in the service and pay of Jaspar Tudor, (King Henry's 
Earl of Pembroke,) it is not unlikely but that he might 
have been hired to write by Ellen Gethin, whence came the 
iVI S. called Lywr Coch, (Red Book) now in the library of 
Jesus College Oxford. However it would seem alter all, 
that he was attached in earnest, to neither party ; 
for in this poem he does not lament that the Yorkists were 
defeated at Banbury ; but what occasioned his real grief 
was, the fall of his own countrymen, the Welsh : he was 
national to excess, and his antipathy to the English was 
boundless." * 

By the number, and eulogistic style, of the poems ad- 
dressed by this bard to the different members of the Hergest 
family, it would appear that Ellen Gethin was a munificent 
patroness, and rewarded the efforts of his muse so well, as 
to encourage his perseverance in extolling both the dead and 
the living. It is evident also, that her affluence and good 
housekeeping were exactly such as would encourage the 
frequent visits of the bards and minstrels, who always knew 
the value of such attractions. The heading of another 
elegy of this poet's, on the death of Ellen Gethin's husband 
is thus gijren by its editor, Mr. Jones. 

" The bard was probably within sight of Hergest when 
he began this elegy ; for the opening language of it is that 
of a person looking from a distance, after a long absence, at 
a favourite spot, which he was now hastening to re-visit. 
According to his account of Hergest, there were eight 
strong buildings, or fortresses, on the estate ; and in each; of 
them a refectory and a good stock of wine. The poet pre- 
sents us with a graphic description of the family monument, 
which, according to his delineation of it, must have been 

* The editor of Lewis Glyncothi's poems, in his veneration for the character 
of a Welsh bard, cautiously avoids applying to him, the odious expletive con- 
tained in the expressive monosyllable " Spy"; although by his own account, 
Lewis was no other than a spy, employed and paid by Jaspar Tudor, the 
Lancasterian Earl of Pembroke, and also in the pay and employment of 
William Herbert, the Yorkist Earl of Pembroke, with the consent and con- 
nivance of the former. 



ELLEN GETHIN. 293 



exceedingly handsome. And by way of winding up, Watkin, 
the eldest son of the late lord of Hergest and Ellen Gethin, is 
complimented as being a warrior, and descended from a 
noble and ancient race." In an ode to Sir Richard Vychan 
(or Sir Roger Vaughan), of Tretower, this bard implores 
him to muster a posse comitatus in Wales, and to march 
against the English of the north, in order to be revenged 
upon them for having slain his brother, Thomas ab Rosser, 
of Hergest, and beheaded his half brothers, William earl of 
Pembroke, aud Sir Richard Herbert, of Coldbrook, together 
with several more of his relatives, at Banbury, after the 
fatal battle of Danesmoor, in July, 1469." In an elegy on 
the death of Richard Vaughan, second son of Ellen Gethin 
and her late husband, he exhorts her to " set her thoughts 
upon God ; and whilst lamenting the death of her son, to 
call to mind the death of Christ ; and what painful agony 
the Virgin Mary, his mother, must have suffered in witness- 
ing the sight." The lamentation after Richard he describes 
as being very great and general. He was buried in St. 
Mary's Church, Kington, where the bard says, " his golden 
locks are now concealed from view beneath a monument of 
white marble." He then comforts the mother by telling her 
what kind offices the blessed virgin had performed, in con- 
ducting both her husband and her son into happiness." 

The period of the death of Ellen Gethin is not upon 
record, but it is probable she outlived the poet> Lewis Glyn- 
cothi, otherwise we might calculate with certainty on an 
elegy to her memory from the hand of that bard.* 

* For a portion of these records of Ellen Gethin we have been indebted to 
the favour of the Rev. William Jenkin Rees, rector of Cascob, who obligingly 
permitted a perusal of his manuscript history of Radnorshire. It is to be re- 
gretted that this valuable county history, containing the laborious researches 
and embellishments of its venerable editor, has not been sufficiently encouraged 
to induce him to publish it. But the well known apathy and indifference of the 
gentry of Wales in forwarding matters of literary enterprise connected with 
their national records, is unhappily too notorious to require comment. From 
that cause, four only out of the twelve counties of Wales have been provided 
with histories ; those are Brecon, Cardigan, Pembroke, and Anglesea. 



>V\ 



OWEN GLENDOWER'S FEMALE FAMILY. 

As many of our readers may be but little acquainted with 
"Welsh history, and the particulars of the life of Owen Glen- 
dower, it will be necessary here to give a brief outline of 
that hero's career. 

His proper appellation, according to the usage of his 
country, would be Owen ab Griffith ; being the son of 
Griffith Vychan, and successor as lord of Glyndwrdwy, but 
in the annals of fame he is always known, in Welsh, as 
Owain Glyndwr, and in English, immortalized by the muse 
of Shakespeare, as Owen Glendower, or Owen of Glendower. 
He makes Henry IV. say, when one of his officers boasted of 
having fought personally with that hero : — 

" I'll not believe it ; you might as well have met 
The devil, as Owen of Glendower 
Alone upon the mountains." 

Pennant states that one manuscript fixes his birth on the 
28th of May, 1354 ; Lewis Owen places it five years earlier, 
"for in the year 1349" says he, was distinguished by the 
first appearance of the pestilence in Wales, and by the 
birth of Owain Glyndwr. Holinshed relates that his father's 
horses were found the night of his birth standing in the 
stables up to their bellies in blood : ominous, no doubt, of 
his son's cruelty, and indicative of the slaughter he should 
commit. 

The superstitions and popular notion that signs and sym- 
bols marked by the commotion of the elements, prognos- 
ticating their future carreer, ever attended the birth of 
extraordinary men, has in this instance been well expressed 
by Shakespeare ; wherein he makes Glowdower say . — 



" At my birth 



The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes ; 
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds 
Were strangely clamorous in the frighted fields ; 
These signs have mark'd me extraordinary, 
And all the courses of my life do shew, 
I am not in the roll of common men." 



OWEN GLENDOWER'S FEMALE FAMILY. 295 

It appears Griffith Vychan gave his son an excellent 
English education ; and as if shrinking from a retrospect of 
national events, and sensibly aware of the woe-impending 
nature of a warrior's course, determined that his pursuits 
should be pacific, and his profession that of a civilian. 
Whatever may be said of the anti-patriotism of the princes 
and chieftains of Powys (for it must be admitted they were 
generally disloyal to their native and natural sovereigns), 
they doubtless became the earliest pioneers in clearing away 
the obstacles to an ultimate annexation of their country to 
England, by their voluntary adherence to that crown. Thus 
it appears, curiously enough, that the father of Owen Glen- 
dower intended his son r.hould become an English statesman 
and courtier. To forward these views, he was placed to 
study English law in the inns of court, and Owen became 
a Barrister. His father's influence was then exerted to get 
him an appointment at the court of King Richard II. and 
he became the scutiger, or esquire of that monarch. As 
the latter was a military post, and not in consonance with 
his former pursuits, it is probable that Owen at that time 
renounced the intention of following any further the functions 
of a lawyer and civilian. Having attended the king in his 
Irish wars, and acquired a taste for military achievements, 
he doubtless proved himself worthy of that martial post, as 
he received the honour of knighthood at the hand of his 
sovereign. Thus Griffith Vychan's original views were 
entirely frustrated, and an opening formed for all the after 
evils that stimulated his son in his insurrectionary career. 

It was at this period of Owen's life that a lawsuit took 
place between him and Lord Reginald Grey, of Ruthin, 
about a piece of land, centrally situated between their re- 
spective estates, the lordships of Ruthin and Glyndwrdwy.* 
The event of this sharp legal contest was, that the law 
awarded to Owen the subject of the dispute. The revo- 
lution that afterwards took place, which ended in the de- 
posal aud murder of Richard II., and the elevation of the 
duke of Lancaster as King Henry IV., deprived Owen 
Glendower of his place at court, when he retired to the 
* It was a common called Croesau.or the Crosses, 



296 owen glendower's female family. 

country to spend the rest of his days at his noble residence 
of Glyndwrdwy. 

There he was not permitted to remain long undisturbed. 
His old adversary the potent lord of Ruthin, taking the ad- 
vantages of his competitor's loss of influence at court, seized 
on the land which the law had awarded to Owen in the late 
suit between them. Owen complained of lord Grey to par- 
liament for this usurpation of his right, but his suit was dis- 
missed unredressed. "Lord Grey injured him also in his 
honour, and represented him as disobedient to the reigning 
sovereign. Previous to an expedition against the Scots, 
Henry summoned his barons to attend with their vassals, 
among whom Owen was inoluded. Unfortunately for the 
peace of the realm, the king's writ for the purpose was handed 
to lord Grey, which the demon of discord would not suffer 
him to deliver sufficiently early to Owen, so as to enable 
him to appear among the other barons. Wilful disobedience 
was ascribed to him, aggravated we may suppose, by his 
antagonist by every insinuation he could instil. His non- 
appearance was construed into disaffection for the cause; 
and by this piece of treachery, under pretence of forfeiture, 
Grey took possession of such parts of Glendower's estates as 
lay adjacent to his own. 

When the subject of Glendower's complaint was so slightly 
entertained by the pe3rs, John Trevor, bishop of St. Asaph 
advised the lords to be circumspect, lest by slighting Owen's 
complaint, they should irritate and provoke the Welsh into 
insurrection. Had this advice been attended to, and the 
salutary maxim of "Principus Obsta" been adopted, fifteen 
years war might have been averted, and all the horrors at- 
tendant on it. Instead of redressing the complainants 
wrongs, and paying a little deference to an injured Welsh- 
man's feelings, some of the lords replied, " that they did not 
fear those rascally barefooted people." 

When Owen saw that parliament, so far from doing j astice 
to his remonstrance against Grey's vindictive and rapacious 
conduct, that they added insult to injustice, the die was cast, 
and the period had arrived to vindicate his own and his 
country's wrongs. 



OWEN GLENDOWER's FEMALE FAMILY. 297 

No sooner had Owen displayed his standard of revolt than 
the country was up in arms ; thousands flocked to it from all 
parts of the principality, encouraged by the prophecies of 
ancient times, promulgated by Merlin, and by Aquila, who 
foretold that the sovereignty of Britain, after having been in 
the possession of the Saxons and the Normans, should ulti- 
mately return to the Ancient Britons. Besides the inflam- 
matory strains of the bards and minstrels, who encouraged 
the people to follow his fortunes, the Franciscan friars, as 
partizans of the late Richard II., invited Owen to invade 
England. 

As it is not within our limits to relate the particulars of 
Owen Glendower's various battles with the English, during 
his warfare of fifteen years, we shall briefly state the results 
of some of his campaigns. 

Hostilities commenced in the summer of 1400, by Glen- 
dower's attack on the domains of Lord Reginald Grey ; but 
when he had entirely recovered his own lands, the object of 
his enterprise was attained; and it does not seem that he 
meditated further hostilities. Doubtless he would at this 
time have sheathed his sword, dismissed his forces, and 
retired to his home, but for the ill- directed severity and im- 
policy of the king of England. 

Aware that Owen was a staunch partizan of the late king, 
Henry chose to regard the attack on the domains of Reginald 
Grey as against himself, and sent that nobleman, supported 
by Lord Talbot, and as he deemed with sufficient forces to 
crush the Lord of Glyndwrdwy. By no means anticipating 
such measures they came upon him unawares, and Owen 
very narrowly escaped, and sheltered himself and partizans 
in the woods. The sagacious mind of Owen immediately 
suggested powerful measures of self-defence ; he saw that 
once in the hands of the English authorities, not only his 
entire possessions, but his life would be forfeited. There- 
fore this attempt to capture or destroy him and his followers, 
literally forced him to take up arms again, and his temporary 
insurrection for redressing private wrongs, entirely changed 
its character, and assumed the ominous features of a national 
rebellion. 



298 owen glendower's female family. 

Decision of character, that master-spring of human great- 
ness, discovered itself early in Owen's career. Encouraged 
by the enthusiasm and devotedness of his countrymen, who 
had long groaned under the exactions and tyranny of the 
English, he caused himself to be proclaimed prince of Wales, 
and was solemnly invested with the diadem of sovereignty, 
as the legitimate successor of Llewelyn, the last native prince 
of that country. He also made common cause with the 
English nobility who were disaffected towards the reigning 
king whom they aimed to dethrone, and raise to the crown 
the young earl of March, the legitimate successor of 
Richard II., who was then the prisoner, or rather protegee of 
Owen Glendower. 

As before observed, our present object is not to celebrate 
the exploits of Owen Glendower, or to enter minutely into 
the events of his career, but merely to sketch, for the in- 
formation of strangers to Welsh History, some particulars 
of his position in the stirring incidents of his age ; with the 
view of giving some slight notices of the Celtic dames and 
damsels who composed the female family of that singular 
and celebrated chieftain,* pursuant to the title and purpose 
of this work. Thus much, however, may be appropriately 
stated : — in the course of his fifteen years' warfare, Time 
saw the capable and warlike Henry IV. assisted by his son, 
the gallant " Harry of Monmouth," no less than thrice per- 
sonally in the field against him, supported by all the avail- 
able forces of England ; and each time, as Shakespeare ex- 
presses it, sent " bootless back." Time saw Owen aided by 
and in alliance with the king of France, and acknowledged 
by his ambassador as the legitimate sovereign of Wales. 
Time saw the Percies of Northumberland and the Douglas 
of Scotland seeking his arms and counsel against the usurper 
Bolingbroke ; and Time saw them crushed at the battle of 
Shrewsbury, and their arch-enemy Harry victorious, and 
thus by their ruin firmly fixed on the English throne. And 
lastly, Time saw Owen himself a d?serted and ruined man, 

* Those who wish to read his entire history, are referred to his Life in the 
Cambrain Plutarch, by John Humphreys Parry, and the "Memoirs of Owain 
Glyndwr, by the Rev. Thomas Thomas, vicar of Aberporth. 



OWEN GLENDOWER* S FEMALE FAMILY, 299 

a disguised wanderer in the land, concealed in caverns, and 
the secret recesses of the mansions of his friends. 

It has been ascertained, however, that a free pardon to 
Owen and his followers, in case they should request it, was 
issued by the English crown on the accession of Henry V. 
Thomas states that " our hero terminated his hopes and 
fears on the 20th of September, 1415, , on the eve of St. 
Matthew, in the sixty-first year of his age, at the house of 
one of his daughters ; but whether of his daughter Scuda- 
rnore or his daughter Monnington is uncertain." 

Owen Glendower's pretensions to Cambrian royalty were 
derived from his mother; her name was Ellen, or Elena ; 
she w r as the eldest daughter of Thomas ab Llewelyn ab 
Owen, by his wife Eleanor Goch. The latter was the 
eldest daughter of Catherine,* wife of Philip ab Ivor, lord 
of Iscoed, and eldest daughter of Prince Llewelyn ab 
Griffith, the last native prince of Wales. 

The wife of Owen Glendower was Margaret,"daughter of 
Sir David Hanmer, of Hanmer, in the county of Flint, one 
of the justices of the king's bench, by the appointment of 
Richard II, in 13S3, and knighted by him in 1387. Her nup- 
tials were previous to her father's promotion ; for it is certain 
that some of the daughters were married, and the sons grown 
to manhood before Glendower appeared in arms in 1400. 

lolo Goch, (Edward the Red) the domestic bard of Owen 
Glendower, paid the following tribute of praise on this lady, 
her offspring, and her general hospitality. 

" His lady wife, of generous aims, 
The kindest, best, of wedded dames ! 
Ki 
W 

01 

Fj 
B, 
T.1 _ a . I 

* Pennant observes ;hat Catherine was probably married before the death 
of her father, otherwise Edward's jealously aboat the succession to the prin- 
cipality would have made her share the fate of her sister Gwenllian, who 
perforce took the veil in the convent of Shaftesbury. Warrington on the other 
hand says that Catherine was married to Malcom, earl of Fife. The two ac- 
counts are not reconcilable unless we give Gwenllian to the earl of Fife. 
2 B 



300 OWEN GLENDOWER'S FEMALE FAMILY. 

Her children source of joys and cares. 
Sweet rosy loves ! come forth in pairs, 
A nest of chieftains, fair to see, 
Destin'd for future chivalry !" * 

Alas for the flattering predictions of the friendly bard ! the 
utmost that we can learn of the fates of the chieftains of this 
" nest," is comprised in a single line ; " it is probable that they 
fell in battle." Browne Willis, however, asserts that on their 
fathers death they fled into Ireland; that one of them 
settled in Dublin, and took the name of Baulf, or the strong, 
and was ancestor to a respectable family in that city. 

This admirable wife who blessed the peaceful portion of 
her husband's days with the mild virtues of a tender partner, 
a faithful friend, and a fondly cherishing mother, bore him 
amongst the above-mentioned " nest of chieftains," a little 
bevy of fair daughters also ; whom we afterwards find united 
by marriage to some of the most noble of English families. 
Several were wooed and wedded into the most eminent of 
the houses of their own Cambria. We read in certain 
English pedigrees, that Alicia, one of the most beautiful of 
Glendower's daughters, was married to Scudamore of 
Holm Lacy, in the county of Hereford ; and Janet his third, 
and most accomplished daughter, (for her wit and wisdom 
were the wonder of all who knew her,) became the wife of 
Crofts, of Croft castle, in the same county. Jane the fourth 
daughter married Lord Reginald Grey, of Ruthin castle, in 



* The lines in the text, form rather a paraphrase than a translation ; the 
original of lolo Goch ran thus : — 



The following is Pennant's literal translation : — 
His wife the best of wives ! 
Happy am I in her wine and metheglin: 
Eminent woman of knightly family, 
Honourable, beneficent, noble. 
Eer children come in pairs, 
A beautiful nest of chieftains. 






OWEN GLENDOWER'S FEMALE FAMILY. 301 

the county of Denbigh,* North Wales ; and Margaret, the 
fifth, bestowed herself, M from violent love," on the brave and 
handsome Monnington of Monnington, also in the land of 
Hereford.^ By these marriages, towards the end of the 
fifteenth century, we see that the Saxon and the ancient 
Briton could unite in one interest, and that by the most in- 
timate and hallowed of all ties, the rites of marriage. Even 
the three illegitimate daughters of Owen were married into 
houses of considerable note. One was wedded into the 
house of Gwernan ; another, named Mevanwy, to Llewelyn 
ab Adda of Trevor; and Gwenllian, of whom we have a 
separate notice in this work, to Griffith ab Rhys, of St. 
Harmon, in Radnorshire. 

Thomas, in his notice of Glendower's residence, thus 
describes its situation and extent. " The tract, ever memor- 
able for its hero, called Glyndwrdwy, or the Valley of the 
Dee, (which name it still retains) extends about seven 
miles in length, and lies in the parish of Llangollen, Llan- 
dysilio Llansaintfraid, and Corwen. It was anciently a 
Comot, in the kingdom of Mathravel, or Powys. This 
dale is narrow, fertile, bounded by lofty hills, and in various 
parts profusely covered with trees." 

Iolo Goch, has handed down by the songs of his harp, a 
very particular description of the habitation and its hos- 
pitalities. He describes it as a kind of palace-castle, with 
a gate tower, and surrounded by a moat. It contained 
nine halls of entertainment, and each furnished with a ward- 
robe filled with clothes for his retainers, and garments for 
the passing traveller, who might need such change. Near 
to the main building, but beyond the moat, and on the side 
of a green hill, appeared a goodly dwelling, divided into 
various apartments for the accommodation of wayfaring 
strangers, to lodge them in. There were also, in and about 
the castle, a church and several small chapels. The place 
was in the midst of every convenience for family provision, 

* It appears that Lord Reginald Grey wooed and won " the gentle Jane,' ' 
while he was a prisoner to her father. 

+ We are indebted for a portion of this notice of Glendower's wife and 
daughters to an article in an Annual called the Boudoir. 



302 OWEN glendower's female family. 

and support of the most generous hospitality ; a park for 
deer, a warren for rabbits, fields for cattle, a pigeon-house 
near at hand, a mill, orchard, and vineyard, and a well 
stocked fish-pond. A heronry and a falconry for sport. 
Then the wine and the ale, and the mead, flowed like water 
on each welcoming board. In short the bard describes with 
the grateful fidelity of one who had often partaken of the 
feast, that the life of the cook was estimated, by the laws of 
hospitality, at the worth of a hundred and twenty other men! 
And such was the hospitality of the house, the place of a 
porter was deemed useless ; and (oh rare boast !) such was 
the honesty of the Welshmen of those days, that locks and 
bolts were unknown. 



IxP, 



POMPONIA GEJ3CINA, 

WIFE OF ATJLTJS PLAUTIUS, THE FIRST ROMAN GOVERNOR IN 
BRITAIN. 

From Hughes's Horse Britannicae, and the high authority 
which he quotes, we glean the following account of this lady, 
whose history is coeval with the earliest Roman domination 
in Britain. " Among the Romans of distinction that came 
to Britain, it is reasonable to suppose that a few converts to 
Christianity might be found: one we know there assuredly 
was, that illustrious person, Pomponia Gicecina, the wife of 
Aulus Plautius, the first governor of Britain. Of that lady 
Tacitus gives us the following account : — •' Pomponia Grae- 
cina, an illustrious lady married to Plautius ; who was 
honoured with an ovation, or lesser triumph for his victories 
gained ia Britain, was charged with having embraced a 
stran ge and foreign sup exatUipn; for which alleged crime 
her trial was committfthto her husband. He, agreeable to 
the laws and ancient forms of proceeding in such cases, con- 
vened her family and friends together ; and, being in their 
presence tried for her life and fame, she was pronounced 
innocent." The historian adds, " the lady lived long after 
this, but in perpetual sadness." 

Hughes remarks, " that Pomponia was injieart a Christian, 
there can be little doubt, for that was the foreign religion of 
which the Romans were become sojealous ; and the worship 
of the Gods of Heathenism was supposed essential to the 
prosperity of the empire. To embrace a religion which was 
in hostility to that of Rome, was therefore considered highly 
criminal, and especially in a person of quality. But this was 
not always strictly attended to, as we find there were 
Christians even in Caesar's household, after St. Paul came 
to Rome, as appears from his epistle to the Philippians, 
ch. iv., v. 22.* 

* Another writer on this subject observes, " we may reasonably conclude 
that its spirit had already touched Ccesar's household, although it was only in 
the veiled meekness of a gentle domestic influence." 
2 b 2 



304 POMPONIA GR^ECINA. 

Pomponia may not have publicly professed Christianity, 
and was cleared of the charge brought against her, while she 
was prohibited from adhering to what Tacitus, according to 
the usual mode of expression, styles a strange and foreign 
superstition. In consequence of her being thus situated, 
she lived in great privacy; renouncing the pomp of high life, 
and cherishing in her own breast the sentiments which she 
dared not divulge. This account of Pomponia appears also 
to be a confirmation of what we have supposed, that there 
were other persons partial to Christianity among the Romans 
who were at this time in Britain ; or this lady could not 
have been so strongly suspected, since her coming to Britain, 
of evincing a partiality to the Christian cause. The trial of 
Plautius's lady occurred, according to Dr. Stilingfleet, when 
Nero and Calphurnias Piso were consuls, or A.D. 57, which 
being, according to him, after St. Paul's coming to Borne, 
he considers her to have been one of the apostle's converts.* 

* Pomponia Graecina, with Claudia, otherwise Gwladys Ruffina, and St. 
Tecla, the virgin and martyr, are supposed to hare been contemporaries, and 
form a trio of our earliest Roman-British female Christians .The following are 
our two attempts at working their names and celebrity into Tribans, or Welsh 
Epigrams : — 

TRIBAN THE FIRST. 

The Roman-British Christians three 
In name and order thus they be ; 
Pomponia Graseina — mild and gracious ! 
The spouse beloved of Aulus Plautius ; 
Gladdis Ruffina— Pudens' wife, 
Most lovely in her faith and life ; 
Lastly, the gentle martyr, fair 
St. Tecla— famed for merits rare. 

TRIBAN THE SECOND. 

Pomponia Grsecina, 

And Gladdis Ruffina 
With Tecla, the virgin, the martyr, and saint, 

Were three wondrous fair ones, 

For piety rare ones, 
Their race Roman-British, of legends most quaint. 



7*3" 



GWAWR, 



SIXTH DAUGHTER OF BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG, WIFE OF ELYDE 
LLYDANWYN, AND MOTHER OF THE RENOWNED BARD 
LLYWARCH-HEN. 

Gwawr, was the sixth daughter of Brychan Brecheiniog 
Her name may sound uncouthly to an English ear, and look 
any thing but agreeable to an English eye, composed as it 
is of five letters, out of which four of them are consonants 
and only one vowel. But translated, Gwawr h ears the beau- 
tiful and poetic meaning of the Dawn, or Aurora, as per- 
sonified in classic lore, the rosy-fingered. She became the 
wife of Elydr Llydanwyn, the younger brother of Kyn- 
varch-oer, and it appears curious that so many of the sons 
of this chieftain became the admirer > and husbands of as 
many of the daughters of Brychan. Fortunate, as several of 
the females of this family were, in the eminence of character 
attained by their progeny, the lady of our present notice 
yields to none of her sisters in that respect, as she became 
the mother of that patriot prince, heroic warrior, and illus- 
trious bard, Llywarch-hen, (Llywarch the venerable,) 
one of the trio, formed between himself, Aneurin, and Tal- 
iesin Penbeirdd. 

" This prince had a considerable territory in the north of 
England ; he not only cultivated an acquaintance with the 
Muses, but shone in arms, and was one of those who sig- 
nalized themselves in an age remarkable in the history of 
Britain, for terrible wars and devastations. Llywarch- 
hen, however, took no part in the civil war which brought 
on the catastrophe at Caralan so fatal to the Britons, 
wherein Arthur fell in the year 542. Foreseeing the im- 
pending storm, he entered into a confederacy with his rela- 
tion Urien Rheged, and his valiant son Owen, to repel the 
incursions of the Saxons, who menaced the very existence 
of the British government in the North : these persevering 
invaders having already possessed themselves of all that 



8f6'6 GWAWR. 

country to the East, called Deivr a Brynich, or Deira, and 
Bernicia."* 

Llywarch-hen lost twenty-four of his sons in these long- 
continued battles ; and lived to the age of one hundred and 
fifty it is said, when the epithet "hen" became, attached to 
his name. He died upon the banks of thel Dee,j" near Bala, in 
Merionethshire, where is still a secluded spot, called Pabell 
Llywarch-hen, or Llywarch, the venerable's old tent or cot. 
Dr. Davies says, that in his time there was an inscription 
to his memory to be seen on the wall of the church, wherein 
it was said the venerable bard was interred ;" but the beau- 
tif cations, (I use a Gothic term to describe a Gothic act,) 
of succeeding churchwardens, have long obliterated all traces 
ofit.J 

A literal prose translation of his poems was published, 
some years ago, by the late Dr. Owen Pughe, under the 
title the Heroic Elegies of Llywarch-hen, accompanied with 
a brief sketch of his life. Theophilus Jones remarks;^- 
" his poems are plaintive and elegiac, several of them, par- 
ticularly that in which he laments the death of his sons 
have great merit, the English translation, however, of the 
latter, by Mr. Elliot, published in Jones's reliques of the 
Welsh bards, in my opinion, far surpasses the original^ in 
poetic beauty. 

|| "See the warlike train advance, 
Skill'd to poise the pond'rous lance ; 
Golden chains their breasts adorn ; 
Sure for conquest were they Lorn. 

* The latter was erected into a kingdom by Ida, (called Flamddwyn in Tal- 
iesin's poem of the battle of Argoed,) in the year 547, as the Saxon chronicle 
and all our historians affirm. Upon the death of Ida, in 580, Ella the son of 
Iff! assumed the title of king of Deira. Richard of Hexam, a Northumbrian 
writer in 1180, says, that Deira extended from 1he Humber to the Tees; and 
Bernicia, from the Tees to the Tweed. They were both afterwards united 
by Ethelfred, who formed from them the kingdom of Northumberland,— 
" Carte's History qfjtegjand; 




Written Du,]but pronouuced Dee, in Welsh. 
'% Theophilus Jones. 

K Forgetting his criticism on a passage of Taliesin, paraphrased like this, by 
an English author, Mr. Jones has greatly over-rated these lines, six of which 



GWAWR. 307 



Four and twice ten sons were mine, 
Used in battle's front to shine : 
But low in dust my sons are laid, 
Not one remains his sire to aid. 
Hold ! oh hold, my brain thy seat ! 
How doth my bosom's monarch beat; 
Cease thy throbs, perturbed heart, 
Whither would thy stretched strings start ? 
From frenzy dire and wild affright, 
Keep my senses through the night." 

are given at the close, while the following single line expresses the whole of the 
original, far more forcibly. 

" Oh God ! that my senses be left me this night." 
The two first lines of the above, and the last but one, are plagiarisms from 
Gray, and how doth " my bosom's monarch beat," from Shakspeeje. 



10^ 



GWENHWIVAR,*" 

WIFE OF THOMAS AB ROBIN, LORD OF COCHWILLAX, AND 

THE OLD WOMAN OF ANGLESEA. 

A solitary pathetic incident in the life of each of the two_ 
females under present consideration, is all that we hav« to 
offer respecting them. As their misfortunes were of the 
most calamitous description, the interest attached to them 
will amply make up for the brevity of the details ; con- 
nected as they are with the national history of that eventful 
period, when the desolating civil wars of York and Lancaster 
made the entire land of England alternately a reeking field 
of slaughter, and a Golgotha among the nations. 

During those commotions between the descendants of 
Richard II. and those of Henry IV. and their partizans, 
although the larger number of the Welsh attached them- 
selves to the house of York, there were many of the best 
families in Wales who espoused the cause of the Lancas- 
terian party. Among the latter was Thomas ab Robin, lord 
of Cochwillan, a gentleman of considerable rank and estate, 
the husband of the lady of this memoir; whose ill fortune 
it was to be taken prisoner and brought to Conway, by a 
party of the Yorkists, under the command of William 
Herbert, the new earl of Pembroke, during the ascendancy 
of the house of York, whose king, Edward IV., was now 
upon the throne. 

In these terrific times of anarchy and bloodshedding, 
originating in the dispute of two cousins as to which of 
them had a right to be king, the whole nation became par- 
tizans with one or the other of them ; and not unfrequently 

* As much pertness has been displayed by certain witlings in their (so called) 
Tours in Wales, on the supposed unpronounceable Welsh names that came in 
their way, we beg leave to suggest that any English tongue may utter this 
name with ease and pi-opriety, recollecting that the Welsh w is sounded like 
the English oo in hood. The entire pronunciation is Gwen-hooey-var, without 
accenting either of the syllables. 




GWENHWYVAR AND THE OLD WOMAN OF ANGLESEA. 309 

the members of the same family espoused different sides in 
the party politics of the day — brother against brother, 
parents against their children, and children against their 
parents, till the nation became demoralized, nay brutalized 
to the most astounding extremity. Each of the belligerents 
became infuriated with the madness of party rage to such a 
fearful degree, that their resentment against each other was 
as violent as it was implacable. Their mutual hostility was 
also as blind as it was fierce and destructively overwhelming, 
for the brief hour in which their power was in the ascendant. 
Thus we see him, who one day in all the insolence of demi- 
sorereignty, adjudged his captives to a violent and immediate 
death, crushed in his turn, and subjected to as stern a fate 
as he so lately doomed others. But notwithstanding the 
frequency of such retributions, they seemed to teach no 
lesson to the implacable spirit of the age, whose motto 
appeared to be, to destroy or be destroyed, captivity and 
death being literally synonymous terms, for rarely was a 
prisoner of either party spared the final introduction to the 
axe of the executioner. 

Impressed with these gloomy convictions, it may be con- 
ceived with what intense terror Gwen hwyvar learnt that 
the captors of her husband and the masters~oT his fate were 
the jtwo Her berts, William, earl of Pembroke, who received 
that title on the deprivation of Jasper, the second son of 
Owen Tudor, for his zealous adherence to the fortunes of 
Edward IV., and his brother Sir Richard Herbert, of Cold- 
brook ; the two most stern and unrelenting of all the com- 
manders for the house of York. These brothers, as stated 
in their mother's memoirs in this work, were the sons of 
Sir William ab Thomas, of Raglan C astle, and the Lady 
Gwladys, daughter of the renowned Sir David Gam, of 
Brecon, who fell on the field of Agincourt. We are in- 
formed that they dropped their Welsh designation and 
adopted the surname of Herbert, according to the English 
fashion, at the request of Edward IV., whose especial fa- 
vourites they were, and well might be, for their undeviating 
adherence to his cause in every extremity, although their 
illustrious maternal grandfather gained his laurels and lost $ArW 



310 GWENHWYVAR AND THE 

his life in defence of a sovereign of the house of Lancaster, 
The Welsh heralds and etymologists derive the name of 
Herbert from Hirbert (Hir signifying tall, and bert hand- 
some) ; which is said to he personally descriptive of these 
grandsons of Sir David Gam. However plausible such a 
derivation might be, the English antiquaries very justly 
deny a Welsh orig in to the name of Herbert, and say the 
founder of it was Henry Fitzherbert, who espoused 
Lucy Corbet, one of that profligate monarch's, (Henry 1.,) 
twelve mistresses! But the pedigree formed by the Welsh 
genealogists at the command of Edward IV. (which is still 
preserved in the herald's office), originate the family from 
Herbert Fitzroy, a natural son of Henry I. '* This dif- 
ference of opinion," observes Cpypin his Monmouthshire 
tour, " may be reconciled, as the above mentioned Lucy 
Corbet urns concubine to the kirig^as well as wife t* the lord 
chamberlain." Truly, these Normarrized Welshmen must 
have been deeply infatuated with the king they served, to 
have accepted, as an especial mark of grace, such a ques- 
tionable honour, in exchange for their own unblemished 
paternal designation; although the illegitimate offspring of 
the king or chamberlain by the concubine in question, was 
said to be Edward the Fourth's own ancestor. "But," say 
all ignoble nobles, and the echoes of courtly parasites, in 
defiance of truth and honesty, "the king can do no wrong 
— the king is the source of honour — infamy becomes honour 
and vice virtue, when sanctioned by the practices of 
royalty."* 

Lord Herbert of Cherbury, a descendant of the Herberts 

* The question respecting this nam e, were the matter in any way important 
is easily set at rest ; and without doubt, precisely as stated in the text, origin- 
ating from Henry the First's accommodating lord chamberlain, so honourably 
allied to the king's still retained concubine, Lucy Corbet ; and by no means, as it 
is impudently pretended by some parties, from a count of the name of Herbert, 
or Fitzherbert, said to have come to this country in the train of William the 
Conqueror, and to have afterwards become chamberlain to his brutal son 
William Eufus. The Norman name of Herbert and the Welsh name of 
Hibbert, have been confounded together. The latter it is, and not Herbert, 
that is derived from Hir (tall) and bert (handsome). There are several families 
in Glamorganshire of this name : the change of a single letter would restore it 
to its original propriety of Hirbert. 



OLD WOMAN OF ANGLESEA. 311 

under present consideration, has given these ancestors of 
his a magnificent report, in his life of Henry VIII., and 
notwithstanding his obvious personal interest in magnifying 
the prowess and exalting the fame of those relatives from 
whom he derived whatever he had to boast of lineal glories, 
succeeding historians have taken his word, and merely 
echoed or reproduced his overdrawn pictures as veritable 
likenesses. A peep into the pages of that honest old his- 
torian, Sir John Wynne of Gwydir, would have exhibited 
them more faithfully pourtrayed, as furious demons rushing 
through their fatherland, and with fire and sword blighting 
the verdure of humanity ;* a disgraceful contrast to Ievan 
ab Robert, the Welsh chieftain in the Lancasterian interest, 
whose moderation towards the Yorkists in his power, and 
filial consideration for the Cambrian soil he trod, forbad his 
staining it with the blood of man. Lord Herbert dwells 
especially upon the " Chivalry" of the Herberts, a term which 
was intended to convey something infinitely superior to 
mere personal courage ; but chivalry with them appeared 
as an indefinite ficton of the Feudal ages, and proved as 
hollow and heartless as the the hypocrisy of those who dress 
themselves in an external garb of piety, when such vesture 
" becomes the fashion at court." It is true onthe part of Sir 
Richard Herbert, the younger brother, we have two in- 
stances that aid to show a slight glimmering of humanity 
lurking at the bottom of a heart, darkened and made callous 
by the usages of war, in his pleading with his brother to 
grant the prayer of the old woman of Anglesea, and his 
manly reply to his dishonourable and brutal king, who re- 
fused to ratify his terms with the Welsh captain, on the 
capitulation of Harlech Castle. But of the elder brother, 
William, earl of Pembroke, we have nothing on record to 



* Sir John Wynne of Gwydir records numerous instances of the brutal in- 
humanity of the Herbert s in their desolating course through NorthT^ales. ' 
Among otter relations of their unsparing vindictiveness, he mentions that M Earl 
Herberts desolation consumed the whole borough of Llanrwst, and all the vale 
of Conway to cold cinders, whereof the print is yet extant ; the very stones of _. 
the ruins of many habitations carrying yet the colour of fire." We may add, 
meet monuments to the memory of such scourges of the human race, embel- . 
lished forsooth ! as they were said to be, by the graces of the age of chivalry. 

2 c 



312 GWENHWYVAR AND THE 

distinguish him from the most common-minded man of the 
sword. 

They possessed the common .yirtue_ of courage in an 
eminent degree ; the ruffian qualities of muscular strength 
and fearlessness of danger, a mere matter of nerves and 
muscles set in motion by the animal propensity of an in- 
domitable self-will; but no generosity of sentiment, no 
heroism properly so-called, could be attributed to them; 
none of the great self-denying qualities that roused the ad- 
miration of friends and foes to deify the valiant of the Greek 
and Roman era. They were even deficient of common hu- 
manity, much less those brighter attributes, which may be 
called the civilization of warfare, in contradistinction to the 
unscrupulous barbarity of slaughtering savages : the Her- 
berts, in fact, were fitted only to shine their hour and be 
extinguished, in a war of extermination, like that in which 
they were engaged.* 

Attired in the deepest mourning and absorbed in excessive 
grief, the lady Gwenhwyvar presented herself before the earl 
of Pembroke, and in the agony of despair entreated that her 
husband's life might be spared, feelingly urging thatalthough 
a nominal adherent of the house of Lancaster, he was un- 
distinguished for any particular acts of hostility against his 
opponents of the house of York ; and surely on no estimate 
of demerits could his faults be found to deserve the extreme 
punishment of death. Her pathetic pleading, as might be 
expected, was unavailing : and although she implored in the 
most touching accents of a broken heart, her solicitation 
was harshly repulsed, and absolutely denied ; at the same 
time, an intimation was given that his execution should take 
place immediately. 

With astonishing firmness of character, equalled only by 
the tenderest spirit of conjugal affection, which distinguished 
her entire life, Gwenhwyvar witnessed the dire deed that 
widowed her; which took place in the neighbourhood of 
Conway' Castle. An appalling ceremony followed, little cal- 

* Had Sir Richard Herbert not been so entirely influenced by his relentless 
brother, the earl of Pembroke, he would have been an exception to these ob- 
servations, but as he followed in the same path of cruel devastation, reluctantly 
or not, he cannot be exempted from the well-founded censures of posterity. 



OLD WOMAN OF ANGLESEA. 313 

culated upon by the authors of this wanton and uncalled for 
tragedy. When Gwenhwy var received the severed head of 
her beloved husband in hexapxpu, she fixed her piercing gaze 
on the face of Earl Herbert ; impenetrable as he was thought, 
her words and manner appeared to thrill him to the heart's 
core ; after pointing in emphatic silence to the ghastly ob- 
ject, still quivering with recent life, a wild spirit of prophesy 
seemed suddenly to inspire her with superhuman energy. 
In the impassioned language of her%reat agony and despair, 
she vehemently vowed that it should not fall unavenged :— ■ 
that for the one foe destroyed in him, scores of enemies to 
the house of York should start into being to punish his 
murderers: and that the pitiless heart which denied her 
prayer, should soon be as cold as that within the mutilated 
trunk of her unhappy husband, and his severed head should 
lie as low. 

There is another case recorded of the unrelenting bar- 
barity of the Earl of Pembroke, attended with a mother's 
malediction as this was by the evil prophesy of a bereaved 
wife. After having inflicted the utmost evil in their power 
on the inhabitants of the other countries of North Wales 
who had favoured the Lancasterians, the two brothers passed 
over to the Island of Anglesea, where the unhappy people 
became subject to similar severities. Seven brothers, who 
were reported to have been zealous partizans of Lancaster, 
and active opponents of the Yorkists, at length fell into the 
dreaded power of the Earl of Pembroke, who immediately 
sentenced them to be hanged. The mother of these un- 
happy victims of the chances of civil war, came before the 
Earl, and in the extreme agony of matronly despair im- 
plored him to pardon two, out of her seven doomed sons, on 
the plea that they were the youngest, mere boys, and conse- 
quently incapable of having caused much evil to any party. 
Her prayer was sternly denied; when the miserable mother 
vehemently pleaded for the life of the youngest, 
who was a mere child; — but although his gallant and 
more generous brother Sir Richard Herbert, seconded her 
petition, the Earl still continued inexorable, stigmatizing them 
all as a nest of thieves and murderers, although in fact their 



314 GWENHWYVAR AND THE 

ojil^_criraes were being of Lancasterian principles; he declared 
them all equally guilty, and ordered them for execution. 

It was then, that the ancient woman was seen to fall 
upon her knees, and with a pair of wooden beads on her 
arms, with her face piteously raised to heaven, as if appeal- 
ing to the benevolence of the eternal power against the in- 
humanity of man, she commenced the Roman Catholic 
ceremony of foriixy;ly.«cj^jijQghim ; praying that " God's 
mischief" might overwhelm him at the first battle in which 
he might be engaged. 

The haughty earl of Pembroke, however, paid as littl e 
regard to her curses as to her previous prayers; especially 
as the triumphant paeans of his party had deafened his ears 
to the touching accents of maternal agony, and converted 
the wailings of the foe into the music that he loved. The 
star of York was in the ascendant ; and the insolence of 
success had hardened the hearts of all, against the prostrate 
enemies of their cause, while the dazzling splendours of 
their fortune's luminary absolutely blinded them to the 
possibility of a future downfall, or a distant day of retri- 
bution. The failure of the Lancasterians, the deposition 
and imprisonment of Henry VI., with the murder of his 
son, were national events coincident with the triumph of the 
rival house, when Edward IV. was formally enthroned, and 
his warrior- par tizans became the partakers of his good fortune. 

The latter part of our memoir of Ellen Gethin has indi- 
cated the manner in which the peace was broken, and the 
flames of war rekindled between the factions of York and 
Lancaster, after Edward IV. had reigned eight years, and 
the country, for that period had been comparatively tran- 
quillized. As some circumstances connected with the fate 
of the two Herberts are therein purposely omitted, we shall 
supply them here. 

Although so great a space of time had intervened, since 
the ojd _woman of Anglesea uttered her malediction, 
doubtless there were many, in that superstitious age, who 
believed that her terrible words were not cast upon the 
scattering winds, but had reached the ear of Omnipotence, 
and that the day of retribution would yet become a verity. 



OLD WOMAN OF ANGLESEA. 315 

Perhaps the haughty Herbert was not altogether free from 
secret misgivings, on a point too strikingly urged not to be 
impressed upon his memory, as the day of his first battle 
after *« the curse" was approaching. That his brother Sir 
Richard Herbert was powerfully affected by the scene, is 
evident, both from his becoming an intercessor in favour of 
the unhappy mother, and his behaviour in the hour pre- 
ceding the fatal conflict. 

" The Earl of Pembroke having arranged his men in order 
of battle on the plain of J3anesmoor, found his brother Sir 
Richard Herbert, leaning on his pole-axe, in a sad and pen- 
sive manner; whereupon the earl said, " what, doth thy 
greaJJbody apprehend any thiug, that thou art so melan- 
choly, or art thou weary with marching, that thou dost lean 
upon thy pole-axe? " Sir Richard replied" that he was nei- 
ther, whereof he shonld see the proof presently, only I can- 
not but apprehend on your part lest the curse of the woman 
with the wooden beads fall upon you." It has been stated in 
the memoir of Ellen Gethin, in what manner the battle of 
Danesmoor was lost by the Yorkists, that with a more com- 
petent general, could not fail of being won ; and how the 
two Herberts became prisoners to the Lancasterians, by 
whom they were doomed to deat h, with as little mercy as 
in their own hour of triumph they had accorded to others. 
The following anecdotes of them, and their behaviour at 
their final hour exhibit them to advantage. Of "William 
Earl of Pembroke it may be said that 4 nothing in his life 
became him like his leaving of it;" we are told that "he 
met his fate with the most noble fortitude and resignation, 
and gave a memorable instance of contempt of death and 
fraternal affection. As he was laying his head on the block, 
he said to Sir John Conyer who ordered the execution, 
** let me die, for I am old ;* but save my brother, who is 
young, lusty, and hardy, mete and apt to serve the greatest 
prince in Christendom." 

Had Sir Richard Herbert been the senior instead of the 
junior brother, doubtless his career would have been 

* This could only be meant in a comparative sense, the Earl's half brother 
by their mother" s first marriage, Thomas ab Rosser, who fell in this battle 
being then sixty, was probably about five years this nobleman's senior. 

2 c 2 



W*v«, 



316 GWENHWVVAR AND THE 

far more brilliant, and distinguished in many instances with 
magnanimous generosity, a trait of native character which 
he appears to have checked, in deference to his elder and 
ennobled brother; a man of great ferocity and gloomy 
pride, and far his inferior in every merciful feeling and 
ennobling virtue. The following anecdote of his bearing 
before Edward IV., tells proudly in his favour, as a man of 
the strictest honour and knightly integrity. 

One of the great achievements of the Herberts was the 
capture of H arlech c astle from the Lancasterians. Thut 
fortress was held for Henry VI., by a Welsh chieftain 
named Davydd ab Ieuan ab Eineon, a strong partizan of 
the house of Lancaster. He was besieged here by William 
Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, after a march through the heart 
of our Cambrian Alps, attended with incredible difficulties 
and dangers. In some places the soldiers were obliged to 
climb, in others to creep and precipitate themselves down 
the rocks ;* and at length they invested the place, till that 
time deemed impregnable. Pembroke committed the care 
of the siege to his brother Sir Richard Herbert who hap- 
pened, singularly enough, to be in size and prowess on a 
par with the Welsh commandant. In course of the siege 
Sir Richard sent him repeatedly a summons to surrender, 
but Davydd stoutly answered, and always in the same svordsj 
"that he had once kept a castle in France so long, that his 
defence of it became a subject of conversation among all the 
old women of Wales ; and that he was determined to keep 
this, till all the old women in France should hear and talk 
of it." But famine, it is supposeiV-ftfr-leegth .subdued him, 
and he yielded up the castle on honourable terms, Sir 
Richard Herbert having pawned his honour foi? the secu- 
rity of his life. Edward at first disavowed those terras, 
when Sir Richard told him plainly, his highness might 
take his life instead of that of the Welsh captain, for that he 
would assuredly replace Davydd in the castle/and the king 
might send whom he pleased to take him out, again. This pre- 
vailed ; but Sir Richard received no reward for his services. 

Sir Richard Herbert was a man of uncommon stature and 

* This route still bears the name of Lie Herbert signifying Uerbert's place, or 
route. 



OLD WOMAN OP ANGLE SEA. 317 

prowess ; and in the days when heavy armour was worn, 
and personal strength an object of high consideration, 
greatly signalized himself in feats of arms. In the battle 
of Danesmoor he displayed such striking instances of cou- 
rage and force, as are scarcely to be equalled in the annals 
of chivalry. With his pole-axe he made a lane, and passed 
and returned twice through the enemy's army, killing with 
his own hand one hundred and forty men ; which, according- 
to his relative and biographer, from whom we quote, " is more 
than is famed of Amadis de Gaul, or the knight of the sun." 

"Much lamentation, and no less entreaty were made to 
save his life, both for his goodly personage, and for the noble 
chivalry which he had displayed in the field of battle." But 
all intercession proved ineffectual ; the sentence was car- 
ried into execution, and Sir Richard Herbert suffered death 
with spirit and resignation. Lord Herbert of Cherbury thus 
closeshis notice of this valiant knight : — " Thus fell Sir Rich- 
ard Herbert, the intrepid soldier, and the flower of chivalry !" 

The Earl of Pembroke was buried at Tintern Abbey ; 
and Sir Richard Herbert in St. John's church, Abergavenny, 
where a costly monument of very elaborate sculpture was 
raised to his memory, near the magnificent tomb of his 
mother the Lady Gwladys. They are now complete 
wrecks,, the figures and ornaments of them broken and 
defaced, from the indurability of the alabaster of which they 
were composed : the mass of ruins seem to mock the vanity 
of the erection, and pointedly to ridicule all human attempts 
at perpetuating mortal glory.* 

* The following description of this monument is transcribed from—" Cox's 
History of Monmouthshire." 

" Beneath an alabaster monument containing two recumbent figures under 
an arch between the chapel and the choir are deposited the remains of Sir 
Richard Herbert of Coldbrook and Margaret his wife ; the tomb is orna- 
mented on the sides with a variety of figures in relievo, but so defaced as to be 
with difficulty made out. The figures are recumbent with uplifted hands; Sir 
Richard Herbert is represented in a full suit of mail, with his head bare, and 
supported by a sheaf of arrows, whijh was his crest. His feet rest on a lion. 
His lady is habited in a long robe, her head reposes on a cushion, supported by 
two figures, much broken— in all probability angels; and her feet rest upon two 
dogs." We may add to this, that as the duck wings that generally distinguish 
sepulchral angels, are absent without leave, it requires a discerning eye to dis- 
cover which are the .logs and which the angels. 



GWENLLIAN, 



^ SIXTEENTH DAUGHTEK OF BRYCHAN BRECHEINIOG, WIFE OF 
LLYR MERINI, AND MOTHER OF CARADOC YRAICH-VRAS. 

Gwenllian, the seventeent h daughter of Brychan, was 
married to Llyr Marini, who in different accounts is described 
both as "lord of Gloucester," and " a chieftain of the North 
of England." He was the son of Meirchion Cul-Galed and 
brother to Kynvarch-oer, the husband of Drynwin, Gwen- 
llian's fifth sister. Like many of her sisters, the glory of 
Gwenllian was in becoming the mother of a most illustrious 
son, Caradoc Vraich-vras, or Caradoc of the Brawny || ( A t rm . 

This celebrated chieftain was contemporary "with King 
Arthur, Urien Rheged, and other worthies of that stirring 
and romantic age, including the bards, Taliesin, Aneurin, 
and Llywarch-hen. He is said to have conquered a portion 
of the Western, or mountainous part of Breconshire, either 
from some of his uncles, or their children. Latterly how- 
ever, the whole of the principality of Brecheiniog devolved 
upon him, as its sovereign. Theophilus Jones says, " many 
arguments might be adduced to prove that Caradoc Vraich- 
vras was brought into Breconshire by the general consent, 
if not by the invitation of the inhabitants, at that time suf- 
fering under the oppression of an usurper, whose defeat, 
about the latter end of the sixth century, conferred upon 
his competitor the government of that part of the country 
over which he ruled." 

In right of his wife's father, it seems, he became "lord of 
Gloucester," and claimed the sovereignty of the province of 
Brecheiniog by his maternal descent from Brychan, as well as 
by conquest or election. Caradoc Vraich-vras is also 
named as one of the most celebrated of King Arthur's 
kni ghts of the ^un' o ^TaUI e, and the lord keeper of y Cas- 
tell DoldYus" or the DolorusTovyer ; which was no other 
than a dungeon, where prisoners of war or traitors of the 
state were confined.* Dispensing with the wonderful stories 
* This officer, in after times, was denominated Constable of the Keep. 






GWENLLIAN. 319 

told of him by the Romance writers, we are informed by 
Carte, upon the authority of a Triad (No. 64 in the Myvy- 
rian Archaeology), that Caradoc Vraiach-vras was king or 
prince of the i j K prnish Brjft-Qfl s. in the latter end of the reign 
of King Arthu£ "Onexamining the Triad in question, this 
is very clearly disproved by the Breconshire historian, who 
also by another Triad established the fact, that this knight 
or chieftain, as a courtier of Kin^ Arthur 's by his office of 
president of the council, was bound to attend his sovereign, 
in his ambulatory courts, one of which was in Cornwall; 
whence the mistake in supposing him to have been a sove- 
reign prince of that country, while in reality both he and 
his descendants were settled in Breconshire. Caradoc 
Vraich-vras has been celebrated in the bardic strains of 
Taliesin and Aneurin, and most especially in several of these 
curious historical documents of the ancient Britons — the 
Triads. In one of them he is recorded as one of the grand 
supporters or defenders of the principality of Wales. " The 
three beloved chiefs of Arthur's court, who never could bear 
a superior in their families ; of whom Arthur sung the follow- 
ing stanza : — 

" My three good knights for battle's shock, 
Mael and Lludd, in armour clad, 
And that same brave intrepid lad, 
The prop of Wales, Caradoc."* 

It is to be remarked, that Caradoc Vraich-vras, in common 
with Arthur and his other knights, shine both in history and 
romance. To separate the latter from the former has been 
our aim ; but when we have to mention his wife, history 
seems to sink, as romance rises. Her name was Tegau 
Euvron ; by some translated Fair one, silver breasted; per- 
haps the latter part refers to the ornaments she wore. Theo- 
philus Jones confesses he can make nothing of it ; his words 
are : — w a name, the definition of wkich, I am at a loss to 
account for. If all the pedigrees were not against me, I 

• The original runs thus :— «« Tii anwyl Llys Arthur, a thri chadvarchawg ^ 
ni Vynassant Penteulu arnynt erioed, ac y cant Arthur englyn iddynt, nid-j 
amgen.Sev:"— 

" Yw vy nrhi Carvarchawc, 
Mael a Llydd Llygyrrawc, 
A cholovn Cymru Cradawc. 



c. 2 
wc. M \ 



320 GWENLLIAN. 

should have conceived it ought to be written T6g ei Vron, 
or Fairbosom." She is said to be the daughter of King 
Pelynor (perhaps Pwll mawr), and was celebrated by the 
bards as one of the three eminently chaste women of Britain, 
who possessed three valuable ornaments, of which she alone 
was reputed worthy ; her knife, her golden goblet, and her 
mantle. The last was certainly with great propriety es- 
teemed one of the thirteen curiosities of the Isle of 
Britain. It would not fit, nor could it be worn by any but 
a chaste woman. Theophilus Jones adds : — " Percy, in his 
reliques of ancient poetry, has a long ballad or tale in rhyme 
upon this subject, which has little to recommend it besides 
its antiquity.* 

* As a matter of taste, we must heartily protest against this opinion. It is 
true, the unweeded ancient ballad referred to, is slightly faulty on the score of 
indelicacy, which has been entirely removed in the modernized edition of it, in 
the Cambrian Wreath. It is full of the most ludicrous incidents ; and the Boy 
and*the Mantle has always been considered, besides its entertaining qualities 
one of the most singular vestiges of antique British balladry. The reader can 
form his own opinion of it by referring to page 74 in this work. 



z 

GWENLLIAN, 



j«A,- 



1 i ° 1 



1 






HEIRESS OF THE VALE OF CLEWYD, DAUGHTER OF RHYS AB 
MARCHANT, AND WIFE OF GWERNWY AB MARIEN AB MOR- 
GENEN AB CYMX'AB GWAITHVOED, A CELEBRATED CHIEF- 
TAIN OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 

AlO'.HaoGH-mtrst'Tsf tire "original -Welsh names of women, 
suj^a»H3ina, Angharad, Swtedys, and Mevanwy, have 
^g£o W ».«e«#-@fe-«t&age with our modern *aee, except in such 
rare instances as where a revival of Welsh nationality has 
encouraged a taste for their restoration among the " literary 
few " in our land, s4iU^ihe*4^ra*8*o£ €»wenlHan retains all its 
a*e4eat~p©pula^y^ai3ti'gefi«ra^ 

bj^-4Je*€r^feeen-4i«e^mtk}u^-^^ny period of- our-history. 
Jbijtf^4>r>ese»t»^^jA^ rural 

population both of North and South Wales ; in the former, 
tk@*f>e4ftte*i*H3»4ia^^^ and in the latter 

GUBaaft^E-and few are the districts in- whieha "dozen or 
twft*of-JSFW«nny->vachs are- no^t to be founder English writers 
oil -Wales have frequently endeavoured to identify this name 
with. WianJJredr ancUWinny , -with either-of which; however, 
it^ha#*»othing to do ; and we can only pity the stupid bad 
taste of those who would sacrifice all national appellations at 
the shrine of their own prejudices, in their works of fact or \ 
fiction. 

It is difficult, however, to account for tj^popularity of 
the name of Gwenlliarii throughout Waljfs, as no definite 
ideas are now entertain ed\of the meaning which it conveys. 
In these days, when the gkass-bleacj^d fabrications of the 
Irish loom are among the Wst common articles in vogue, 
its origin may appear almost m (porously simple; as it is de- 
rived from Gwen, the feminine of white, and Llian, linen 
cloth ; which combined formi the designation of white-linen. 
In a note to his brief notice of the lady of this memoir, in 
the Royal Tribes of Wales, Yorke remarks as an apology 
for the apparent homeliness of toe name, " linen was so rare 
in the reign of Charles the Seventh, of France, who lived 






! 



322 GWENLLIAN. 

about the time of our Henry the Sixth, that her*Majesty the 
Queen could boast of only two shifts of that commodity." 
Ben Jonson, in a much later and more courtly age, has used 
such similes for symmetrical beauty as " a skein of silk," and 
"a fair page of a printed book," each of which, however 
common now, was once rare and new, and is still undeniably 
beautiful ; change of times, therefore, has no power to ren- 
der the name by any means derogatory to its origin, as a 
symbol of purity. 

On further researches respecting the origin of the name 
of Gwenllian, we were not a little surprised to find that Dr. 
Davies, in his Lexicon, derives it from Gwe?i, white ; and 
Llian, a vestal virgin or nun. But the learned lexicographer 
has not informed us how the worcl llian^ literally linen cloth, 
came also to signify a vestal virgiri\or Nun. We shall, how- 
ever, venture to assume, that the Costume, or drapery of a 
certain order of Nuns being of white linen, in the course of 
time they were so designated from t^eir dress, perhaps in 
contradistinction to those who were clacLin black, and called 
the white-clothed, or Gwenllians- That\such a name, thus 
sanctified, should become a favourite with fond and pious 
parents, who bestowed it; like a blessing, on their little 
daughters at the baptismal font, is by no means surprising ; 
suggesting as it does the beau-ideal of spotless purity, con- 
secrated by the adoption of religious characteristics. 

To support the probable correctness of this assumption, 
we shall point out the following parallel case of a designation 
that has deviated from its origin, and firmly fixed itself in 
general usage till the corruption has become legitimatized. 
Llan, in its first or literal sense> signified an inclosure, or 
the embanking and hedging round or walling of a piece 
of ground, to fix its limits, or boundary. Secondly, the ap- 
plication of the word became . exclusively to an enclosure 
about a church and its ground or yard ; and thirdly, it be- 
came the term for the church itself — entirely supplanting 
the proper word Eglwys* throughout North Wales, but 
not in the southern division of the principality. 

* The church, or building so called, is invariably styled yr Eglwys, in South 
Wales, and y Llan most frequently in the North. The adoption of the latter 



HEIRESS OF THE VALE OF CLEWYD. 323 

Gwenllian, the subject of this memoir, was the highly 
dowered daughter of the affluent chieftain Rhys ab Marchan 
ab Cynwrig ab Cynddelw Gam, and lived about the be- 
ginning of the tenth century. For eminence she was called 
Heiress of Dyffryn Clwyd, in which glorious valley, as 
Yorke remarks, " she had great possessions." Consequently, 
in the modern sense of female appreciation she was a very 
desirable woman,* and as we have no data for recording any 
especial virtues that graced the existence of this fair lady, 
the following brief chronicle of her property may not be un- 
interesting to the curious in heiresses. Gwenllian was the 
owner of seven townships in the neighbourhood of Ruthin. 
Her sovereign and kinsman, Prince Bleddyn ab Cynvin, 
took much interest in her happiness, and married her to his 
cousin Gwernwy ab Marien ab Morgenen ab Cynan ab 
Gwaithvoed, a chieftain of considerable note. To make him 
a suitable match for so great an heiress, and in reward of his 
military services to himself and his country, he bestowed on 
him seven townships, a parallel number with Gwenllian's. 
These are Almor, Trevalun, Gresford, Allington, Lleprog- 
vawr, Lleprog-vechan, and Trevnant. 

It seems the only issue from this union was a son named 
Eunydd, who succeeded to the extensive possessions of both 
his parents ; and stands recorded as the head of one of the 
Fifteen Tribes of Wales. Her grandson Ithel ab Eunydd 

term in that sense, points to the earlier and more general corruption, prior to 
which the church signified the communicants, and not the mass of masonry so 
designated in after times. 

* In Coleman the younger's Comedy of John Bull, we have the following 
Morceau in a scene between the Honourable Tom Shuffleton, a fashionable 
scamp, and Frank Rochdale the son of a borough-mongering Cornish Baronet, 
illustrative of the term " a desirable woman." 

Frank. — Give mejoy — I am going to be married. 

Honourable Tom. — To how much? 

Frank.— How like a modern man of the world's your question ! formerly 
they would have asked to whom. 

Honourable Tom.— We never do at the West end of the Town— what's the 
sum? 

Fran k — Fifty thousand pounds. 

Honourable Tom.— What a devilish desirable woman ! my dear fellow I wish 
you joy. 

D 2 



324 GWENLLIAN, HEIRESS 0E THE VALE OF CLEWY©. 

had six sons, and these six great grandsons of Gwernwy and 
Gwenllian jointly gave the land on which the beautiful church 
of Gresford is built. " This is a fact well known/' says 
Lewis Dwnn, the antiquary, " the sepulchres of the grand- 
children of the said Ithel are in the church of Gresford." 

Yorke, in his " Royal Tribes of Wales," concludes a note 
on Gwenllian with the following inquiry ; " should not the 
gentlemen of this tribe, (that of Dyfiryn Clwyd and Alling- 
ton,) carry their ancestress's arms, Azure, a fess, Or, 
between three nags heads, erased Argent ; at least quartered 
with their own, since she was so considerable an heiress." 
This question can be answered only by the learned in Welsh 
heraldry. Williams in his " Cambrian Biography of 
eminent Welshmen," states " that her son Eunydd bore for 
his arms, Azure a lion rampant salient Or, wherewith he 
quartered his mother's coat, being azure between three 
Nag's heads erased argent, a less Or." 



Y%JL W^JUmU^ «5n4 



3 






GWENLLIAN, 



DAUGHTER OF GRIFFITH AB KUNNAN* AND ANGHARAD, KING 
AND QUEEN OF NORTH WALES, AND WIFE OF GRIFFITH 
AB REES AB TUDOR, PRINCE OF SOUTH WALES. 

t 

Gwenllian was the youngest of the four sons and five 
daughters of the above-named sovereigns. She was born at the 
^oyalpalace of Abervraw, in the island of Anglesea, about 
the year V5WT~Yi has been shewn in the life of her mother, 
that her infancy, childhood, and youth, were passed amidst 
the most perilous and tumultuous times ever known in her 
country, when English aggression overwhelmed her native 
land with such startling disasters as threatened the utter 
annihilation of its future independence as a nation. As 
there are no incidents ©n record respecting her early life, 
except that, like the rest of her family, her youth was spent 
amidst the terrors of sudden invasion, or in scenes of actual 
contention, we shall pass on to what has, been generally 
deemed the most momentous of events in the existence of a 
female, the period when she first attracted the gaze of man's 
admiration. 

In the year 1114, when Gwenllian was a blooming beauty 
of seventeen, an illustrious visitor, often the subject of their 
family conversation, and long expected, appeared at the 
royal palace of Abervraw. This was the young prince 
Griffith, son of her father's ancient friend Rees Tudor, 
whose arms at the decisive battle of Carno proved mainly 
instrumental in recovering for him, the throne of his ances- 
tors which he then enjoyed. 

As we have had to treat of so many contemporaneous 
characters in the respective lives of Angharad, queen of 
Griffith ab Kunnan ; of Nest, daughter of Rees ab Tudor ; 

* According to Welsh orthography this name is written Gryffudd ab Cynan, 
and Rees ab Tudor, is written Rhys ab Tewdwr ; from which we deviate to 
avoid the mispronunciation of the English reader. 

" The gallant Gweffian who battled till death." 



326 GWENLLIAN. 

of Nest, daughter of Iestyn ab Gwrgant; and now of 
Gwenllian, the subject of our present memoir; in each of 
which we have had occasion, incidentally to narrate some 
particulars in the life of this prince (Griffith ab Rees,) there- 
fore some repetitions will be found to occur, which however 
are essential, to make this narrative effectively per- 
spicuous. 

In this memoir, especially, it becomes necessary to remind 
the reader of some of the earliest incidents of his life, 
When his father, the venerable Rees ab Tudor, at ninety- 
years of age was overthrown in Glamorgan by the united 
forces of Iestyn ab Gwrgant, and the Norman baron Fitz- 
hamon, and at the instigation of the former beheaded; two 
of the sons of Rees were still in the field, at the head of 
their late father's army, that was soon after entirely routed. 
These were Gorono, the eldest, and Kunnan.* The former 
was soon taken, and like his illustrious father, beheaded. 
The unfortunate Kunnan was then literally hunted to death ; 
being very closely pursued in his retreat towards the vale of 
Towey, to save his life he plunged into a lake called Crem- 
lyn, and aimed to swim over it, but was drowned in the 
attempt.f Thus, there were but two surviving, of the four 
sons of the late sovereign of South Wales ; these were 
Gwenllian, daughter of prince Griffith ab Griffith, soon to 
be in the closest ties of relationship with the lady of this 
memoir, and his youngest brother Howel. Both Griffith 
and Howel were at this time in their infancy ; and being 
the next claimants in the succession to the crown of South 
Wales, were in eminent peril of their lives both from the 
insatiable ambition and relentless cruelty of Iestyn ab Gwr- 
gant, and the equally ferocious emissaries of the King of 
England. In what manner the life of Howel was preserved, 
how, where, or by whom he was concealed and nurtured 
has never been made clear by any of our historians, although 
it stands recorded that he was at length in his boyhood 

* In "Welsh -written Cynan, but pronounced Kunnan. 

■f From this circumstance the lake had its name changed, and was ever 
after called Llyn Cynan, or Kunnan's lake. 



GWENLLIAN. 327 

captured and imprisoned by the English.* To secure the 
life of Griffith, whose heirship to the throne of South Wales 
had placed him in especial danger, he was sent, for safety 
and education to Ireland, where all the claims of a fugitive 
prince and w heir of dominion" were most hospitably ex- 
tended to him, by Murcart the reigning King of Dublin, 
There he remained till this period, when he was twenty-five 
years of age; and now returned with all the gifts and 
graces of a young warrior, panting for an opportunity to 
distinguish himself in arms, for the recovery of his long- 
lost sovereignty and dominions. 

Prince Griffith ab Rees was received with great cordiality 
by the royal family of North Wales. Griffith ab Kunnan 
could not but recollect, with feelings of intense gratitude 
his obligations to his late father, when he was precisely in 
the same predicament as his son, his present guest, a 
wandering refugee, throneless, and even homeless ; and yet, 
such was his unfortunate position, he dared not openly to 
appear as his friend, dreading the consequent hostility of 
that cunning, capable, but. unscrupulous, and most rapacious 
sovereign, Henry I, King of England ; who had already, 
to the keen eye of the observing politician, divulged his plans 
for the annexation of South Wales to his own dominions. 
However, for some time, Griffith ab Rees was entertained 
as happily as he could have wished, among the family of the 
northern prince, of whose scruples to befriend and assist 
him, he was not yet aware. It was soon discovered, that of 
all the females of the royal family, his especial attentions 
were devoted to Gwenllian ; who, flattered by his preference, 
we may conceive by after results, was by no means back- 
ward in meeting his respectful advances : for coquetry at 
this period, had not been studied as an art, supposed to en- 
hance the merits of female attraction. 

It may be conceived with what an all absorbing interest 

* Parry in his life of Khys ab Tewdwr, has omitted altogether the name 
of Howel. In the like manner he makes no reference whatever to the after 
fate of the female raemhers of that scattered and ruined royal family,- except 
respecting Nest, the daughter of that Prince, who became the wife of Gerald 
de Windsor, after being the mistress of Henry I. 
2 d 2 



328 GWENLLIAN. 

this younger daughter of a royal family beheld this young 
prince, whose grievous wrongs, romantic adventures, and 
unmerited sufferings had been so frequently the subject of 
her parents' conversation, before his arrival ; — but now she 
saw and conversed with the long pitied being with whom 
her secret soul so deeply sympathised : — beheld in him the 
future liberator of his country from English usurpation, whose 
arrival his depressed subjects so long looked for — and more 
than all perhaps, when she learnt from him the acknow- 
ledged power of her own fascination, her entire soul appeared 
to have become devoted to him, 

Happy were the days thus spent by Griffith ab Rees at 
the court of North Wales. The princes Owen 
Gwyneth and Cadwalader, he found to be as manly in ath- 
letic sports and exercises as courteous and refined in man- 
ners. The venerable Queen Angharad treated him like a 
son, and all her daughters like a brother, although one or 
two perhaps might look a little askance at the preference 
which he manifested for the youthful Gweullian. Griffith ab 
Kunnan the aged king, " like a grey Lion," as one of our 
poets has happily described him, became somewhat distant 
though civil ; and latterly grew cold and even petulant, 
when the subject of the enterprise of the prince of South 
Wales became the theme of family conversation* The 
natural shrewdness of Griffith ab Rees enabled him soon to 
detect this peculiar bearing of the old prince, from which 
he dreaded the worst results. But with the manly frank- 
ness so peculiar to him, he determined soon to learn from 
his own lips, how far he might depend upon his friendship 
and assistance. 

At length the prince of South Wales found an op- 
portunity for the private conference with his royal host 
which he had for some time sought ; and explained to him 
the nature of his hopes and expectations. He conjured him, 
by the friendship which he bore his father, to assist him 
with military forces^ whereby he might commence his cam- 
paign for the recovery of his dominions ; assuring him that 
besides the assistance in men and arms which he had been 
promised by the generous king of Dublin, that South Wales, 



GWENLLIAN. 



329 



throughout all its hills and valtes, would declare for him and 
be up in arms, as intimated to him by many of its most 
powerful chieftains as soon as he appeared there at the head 
of an army. 

This was exactly the point which the northern prince was 
predetermined to evade, as long as possible, and like all equi- 
vocators, ultimately to deny altogether the assistance sought, 
for the politic reasons before referred to. The plain straight- 
forwardness of the young prince, unpractised in the arts of 
political negociation, served him better on this occasion, 
than the deepest experience in machiavelian wiles and state 
chicanery. The artless honesty of his appeal took the old 
prince by surprise ; and the sophistry which he had prepared 
for his defence against the reasoning of a deeper diplo- 
matist, was utterly nullified, and fell to the ground unused. 
His only refuge from yielding a direct reply was to assure 
him of the insurmountable difficulties presented by the 
watchful vigilancy of the English court, and the numerous 
forces of the Barons, who exercised a vice-regal authority 
in the marches, and were unassailably potent in their 
numerous castles throughout the Cambrian territory. In 
conclusion he advised him to defer, if he would not be per- 
suaded to yield up his views altogether ; and here their con- 
ference terminated. 

Bitterly chagrined at his disappointment the young 
Prince now felt the necessity of a graceful acquiescence with 
his destiny— of " yielding to the force of circumstances/' as 
Napoleon designated such a condition; and of *' waiting 
the births of time," as Cromwell philosophically has de- 
scribed such a state of inaction in a revolutionary warrior's 
life. Accordingly he now resolved to remain quiet for the 
present, among the royal family of North Wales, and spend 
those hours in reflection and observation, which he would 
more gladly have devoted to action, had circumstances 
favoured his aspirations. By this turn in his affairs, how- 
ever thwarted ambition might feel it, he became a gainer in 
real felicity, as he thus continued in daily intercourse with 
the gentle Gwehllian, the lady of our memoir. 

Early misfortunes, frequent and heavy vicissitudes, a 



330 GWENLLIAN. 

whole life worn, wasted, and chafed in warfare, had long 
checked the native daring and intrepidity of soul, which 
had distinguished the early career of the once heroic 
Griffith ab Kunnan. His energies exhausted, and now 
desirous only of repose, the homely and selfish virtue of 
prudence had entirely supplanted his former dauntless 
characteristics. Like several other Welsh sovereigns, his 
predecessors as well as his successors, this prince com- 
menced his daring life like a bounding Lion, the terror of 
all opponents; and ended it like a jaded war steed, aged and 
war-worn, whose brightest laurels seemed trodden into 
litter; his only desire a tranquil shelter, where he could 
spend his latest hours in peace, and then lie down and die, 
free from all disquietude whether of domestic altercation or 
foreign broil. 

Griffith ab Kunnan's statement respecting the vigilance 
of the English court, in observing all movements within the 
Cambrian territory, was quite correct, although uttered 
iu the spirit of evasive confusion — an accidental truth of 
lamentable accuracy ; for a very brief space of time had 
elapsed before Henry was informed of the landing of Griffith 
ab Rees, his reception at the court of North "Wales, and the 
evasion, amounting to a refusal of Griffith ab Kunnan to 
assist him with an army to support his pretensions. Henry 
now had recourse to a scheme of some profundity to frus- 
trate the future attempts of the prince of South Wales. He 
sent a letter composed in the most flattering terms to Griffith 
ab Kunnan, highly calculated to sooth and inflate his natural 
pride, wherein he addressed him as his friend and brother 
sovereign, concluding with a cordial invitation to pay him 
a visit. Having hitherto received nothing from Henry but 
the severe inflictions of his invading armies, and the repeated 
threats of annihilating the native population of Wales, and 
re-peopling it with Englishmen, his present condescension 
and offer of friendship on equal terms without any assump- 
tion of superiority, quite overcame the old prince, and under- 
mined his habitual cautiousness of character. Contrary to 
the wishes of his counsellors, his queen, and family, he ac- 
cepted the invitation; and, as an honourable escort of a 



GWENLLIAN. 331 

splendid description was already prepared, consisting of the 
English nobles, who were the bearers of the king's letter, 
with the addition of a slight retinue of his own, the prince 
of North Wales, and the whole cavalcade set off for the 
English capital. 

Previous to the departure of the prince of North Wales 
for the English court, Howel the younger brother of Griffith 
ab Rees made his escape from the custody of Arnulph, lord 
of the castle of Montgomery, and went to his brother Rees 
at the court of Griffith ab Kunnan. There are but few re- 
cords of the life of this unhappy youth — one more of the 
living relics of Rees ab Tudor's ruined and far-scattered 
family : — it would appear that in early life he was by some 
means torn from his relatives and natural protectors, and 
brought up among the English lords of castles in Wales, 
literally a child-prisoner of state, for whose security those 
who held him in custody were answerable to the king of 
England. Probably he was destined by that unscrupulous 
monarch, like his elder brother, for that destruction which 
was only postponed till he could be detected in seeking the 
restoration of some portion of the lost honors of his house 
and family. The touching scene of their meeting — the long 
estranged brothers, who by the most calamitous of destinies 
had been separated from infancy, must have been interesting 
in the highest degree to the gallant sons and amiable daugh- 
ters of the aged sovereign of North Wales ; and doubtless 
neither the last nor least of partakers in the general sym- 
pathy was the benevolent old Queen Angharad. To the 
young Gwenllian, it must have been a very gratifying cir- 
cumstance, that the long lost brother of her admirer was at 
length restored to him, and thus one scource of deep anxiety 
removed. Griffith pleasingly felt he was no longer a lonely 
branch on the stricken tree of Cambrian royalty. He now 
had found in his long sundered brother, a friend and partizan 
in the future enterprizes which he contemplated. 

At the time of Griffith ab Kunnan's departure for the 
English court two years had expired since Griffith ab Rees 
had first become his guest. That time had neither been 
spent in idleness, nor altogether in promoting his love-suit 



332 GWENLLIAN. 

with the lady of this memoir. It appears that during this 
interval he had visited his sister Nest and her husband 
Gerald de Windsor at Pembroke castle ; and doubtless 
mixed much with the chieftains of the South, to sound their 
inclinations towards his future proceedings for the recovery 
of their long lost national independence. In these excur- 
sions it is probable he went forth in disguise ; as he was 
given to understand agents and spies from England hired to 
assassinate him were neither few nor faint in their purpose 
to earn King Henry's reward. 

Previous to his departure from Ireland he was led to 
expect, from the representations of certain chiefs who had 
visited him in his retreat, and vehemently urged his speedy 
return to his native country, that thousands of his natural 
subjects would flock to his standard as soon as it became 
unfurled, and that his army would meet reinforcements 
wherever he appeared, as he advanced into the country and 
announced himself the son of the late Rees ab Tudor, and 
their present sovereign by right of inheritance. Of this 
romantic view of the subject he found nothing verified : con- 
sequently he listened with suspicion to all whom he found 
too prone to gloss over the existing impediments, and to 
represent his intended course as a smooth plain of flowers. 
He wisely resolved to subdue his chagrin, and disabuse his 
mind by rejecting all such highly coloured representations, 
and rely only on those probabilities founded on his own 
actual experience, and that of a few sage and trusty par- 
tizans in whom he felt warranted in confiding. He now 
found that during his long minority and exile, a strange and 
unnatural degeneracy had taken possession of the minds of 
his countrymen, many of whom took part with the invaders 
of their country against the few generous patriots who staked, 
and in many instances lost their all in defending it. The 
general depravity had produced national anarchy and hos- 
tility to order among the Welsh, which enabled those who 
coveted their possessions to make an easy prey of them, by 
fomenting intestine quarrels. In these civil conflicts, when 
each party had exhausted his means of hostility, in stepped 
the wily Norman, who had either been invited, or had 



GWENLLIAN. d33 

arrogated to himself the office of umpire, and with his over- 
whelming forces trod down the claims of both, and seized for 
himself the subject of contention. Thus it has ever been, 
and ever will be, in all countries where a third party is in- 
vited or allowed to interfere between two conflicting dis- 
putants in a nation. 

Well might the royal family of North Wales feel alarmed 
at the probable consequences of the aged king, now almost 
in his dotage, being brought in contact with a prince so 
corrupt and unprincipled as the then reigning king of Eng- 
land. The boasted learning which gained him the surname 
of Beauclerc, or the Scholar, was of a description that tended 
more to vitiate the heart, and make it revel in the abomi- 
nations of its all-absorbing selfishness, than to enlighten 
and civilize his species. In our memoir of the Lady Nest, 
we have attempted to delineate the character of this royal 
libertine and patron of assassins ; therefore it becomes un- 
necessary here to repeat what is to be found a few pages off. 
His fascinating manners, daring immorality, and dangerous 
political aims, made him a perilous companion for the old 
Northern sovereign. Griffith ab Kunnan on the contrary, 
was an aged prince of simple tastes and plain manners ; and 
although at an earlier period of his life rather given to some 
of Henry's favourite foibles in what has been called " his 
inordinate love of women ;'* in later days he became more 
morally correct in conduct, and severely serious in his 
demeanor. Henry was not slow in discovering that one of 
the surviving passions of his royal guest whom he aimed to 
dupe, was for Bacchanalian enjoyments ; and accordingly 
ministered copiously to that fatal weakness, through which 
he made the necessary breaches for assailing the citadel of 
his highest virtues. The credulity of the Welsh sovereign, 
founded upon his own sincerity, made him blind to the arts 
of Henry, and slow to credit the duplicity attributed to him 
by his own attendant councillors ; so that from the evils of 
this eventful and fatal visit he lost his previous character 
for the most ennobling virtues that could adorn a royal 
personage. 

A faint sketch of the reception and entertainment of 



334 GWENLLIAN. 

Griffith ab Kunnan, at the court of Henry I., and the 
consequences that followed have been rendered by *the 
old chroniclers, in their usual meagre style ; and the 
few details handed down to us are thus stated by Dr. Mal- 
kin, one of the most judicious of our Welsh tourists ; as- 
sisted as he was by the antiquarian researches of Edward 
Williams. 

*«When the king heard this" (the meeting between the 
two brothers, Griffith and Howell, the sons of Rees ab 
Tudor)," he sent messengers in the most nattering manner 
to Griffith ab Kunnan, inviting him to his court in London, 
with a princely guard for his safe conduct. Having enter- 
tained him nobly for some time, and bestowed on him very 
numerous and rich presents of gold, silver, and jewels, the 
king disclosed his mind to his royal guest, and represented 
what danger it would be to him and his principality of 
North Wales, to protect or assist Griffith ab Rees. He 
promised to Griffith ab Kunnan his dominions and estates, 
to be held freely, and his rights or prerogatives according 
to his own will and wishes, with whatever support he might 
on any occasion want, if he would only send Griffith ab 
Rees a prisoner to him, or else put him to death privately, 
and transmit his head, as an incontestible evidence of the 
deed. Cruel and disgraceful as such an act must have 
appeared, Griffith ab Kunnan bound himself to the king by 
an oath to perform it. But he related this in a fit of intoxi- 
cation at the king's court, and was overheard by one of 
Gerald's relations, who sent a messenger on full speed with 
the information. Gerald acquainted his wife Nest, sister to 
Griffith ab Rees with the whole affair ; and she, with all 
possible haste sent messengers to her brothers in North 
Wales, t% inform them of the plot against their lives. As 
soon as they heard of it they put themselves into the 
sanctuary of the church. 

44 When Griffith ab Kunnan returned to North Wales, he 
inquired for his own guests, and on being informed where 
they were, sent an armed force to fetch them away. This, 
the Ecclesiastics would not suffer, alleging it to be inconsis- 
tent with their holy office to consent that the sanctuary of 



GWENLLIAN. 335 

God and his saints should be violated. While this was in 
debate between the clergy and the officers of the northern 
king, a ship from Pembrokeshire arrived off the coast. The 
sailors compassionating the condition of the two princes, 
took them into their ship and conveyed them in safety to 
South Wales." 

It has been stated by some historians that Gerald de 
Windsor assisted his brother-in-law Griffith ab Rees in his 
ambitious projects of recovering the sovereignty of South 
Wales. The preceeding extract would seem to favour that 
supposition, the fact, however, is very doubtful. Gerald, 
from his position as the English king's lieutenant and re- 
presentative in South Wales, could not have supported the 
pretensions of Griffith without being in actual rebellion 
against his sovereign. But that he should secretly have 
connived at his assumptions, at the instigation of his wife» 
is very probable ; considering with what a boundless degree 
of affection he loved "the beautiful Nest/' as manifested in 
his reception of her, after the many years of involuntary 
absence, occasioned by her abduction by the villanous 
Owen ab Cadwgan, as related in that lady's memoirs. 

The fortunate escape of the young princes Griffith and 

Howel, and deliverance from the most imminent life-peril, 

created sensations in different quarters as intense and 

various as the interests that were either served or thwarted 

by the eventful occurrence. The fury and disappointment 

of Henry, the impotent wrath of the " old grey lion," now 

become a very tiger in his rage for blood, may be well- 

imagined. Contrasted with these evil passions it is pleasant 

to conceive how rapturous and full of pious thankfulness 

was the joy of Gwenllian, her venerable mother, and 

generous brothers and sisters, and not the least, that of the 

Lady Nest. To the princes themselves this was, indeed, 

*a most memorable epoch in their lives, and appeared even 

an especial interference of Providence manifested in their 

preservation. Never were the wily machinations of a subtle, 

far-reaching despot more signally foiled, than in this failure 

of Henry's murderous scheme. The many and mighty 

waters of his wrath which were to quench the kindling fires 

2 E 



336* GWENLLIAK. 

of the Welsh war of independence, proved as fountains of 
oil that set the whole in a blaze — strengthened and multi- 
plied his foes, in the same degree that his partizans were 
weakened and diminished. % 

Griffith ab Rees knew all this, and elated with his new 
prospects and freedom from all shackles, felt that the star of 
his destiny had risen from its shrouding clouds, and now 
was soaring in the ascendant. Disdaining half measures, 
of which there was no further necessity, abjuring the in- 
activity in which he had hitherto only thought and planned 
his future proceedings, he determined on vigorous and im- 
mediate action. Yielding at once to the impulsive fire of 
his genius, he unfurled the national banners, resolutely took 
the field, appealed to the manhood and patriotism of the 
country, which was eagerly responded to, and soon found 
himself at the head of such numerous forces as promised 
speedily to become a powerful army. It appeared as if 
Fortune, suddenly enamoured of his prowess and the holiness 
of his cause, had determined to make up for former per- 
secution by now showering on him a full abundance of her 
long withheld favour. Notwithstanding the bustle and 
peril of these momentous times, it would appear it was at 
this period that Gwenllian, the lady of our memoir, deter- 
mined to unite her prosperous fortunes with those of the 
young liberator. History gives no details of this union. 
That it was in one respect clandestine, without the sanction 
of her father, is certain ; but doubtless secretly favoured by 
every other member of her family. Her romantic escape 
to South Wales is conceivable only to have been in con- 
sequence of a secret understanding between her and Griffith, 
her future lord; the method of it was probably similar to 
that which brought Griffith and Howel in safety to the 
South : but what members of her family attended and ac- 
companied her on shipboard, or afterwards witnessed the 
marriage, has never been recorded. Her safe arrival, cordial 
reception, espousal to Griffith, and her future sojourn with 
him, cheerfully partaking of, and solacing the most perilous 
period of his adventurous career — is all that history has 
permitted us to learn of that portion of her life. 



GWENLLIAN. 



337 






We may clearly trace in this alliance both the wise and 
generous policy which dictated the measure, -and the peculiar 
sort of opposition rendered by his family to the preposterous 
notions and aims of Griffith ab Kunnan. Notwithstanding 
the fatuity and determined wrong-headedness of the old 
king, and his ruinous tendency to second the atrocious 
views of the English court, it is both curious and pleasant 
to witness the bearing of his family towards him, while the 
•weakness and wiekedness of this part of his life so loudly 
called for a curb to his mischievous proceedings. To princes 
so shrewd and patriotic as Owen Gwyneth, the heir ap- 
parent, and his brother Cadwalader, the faults of their 
father's government must have been very manifest ; yet the 
filial respect so long habitual to them, for his great age, and 
their deference for the feelings of their mother, the good 
old queen Angharad, who could remind them of what her 
lord had been in other days— forbade them to oppose his 
will openly. At the same time they saw it was indis- 
pensable for the interests of the country that a speedy end 
jshould be put to the present order of things, by which the 
nation was writhing under a virulent malady that threatened 
to devour the very vitals of society. The scheme which 
they at length organized did infinite credit to their sagacity, 
and statesmanship ; hinging altogether on the marriage 
which we have stated to have taken place between Griffith 
ab Rees and the lady of this memoir. They contrived that 
this occurrence should appear to their aged parent and 
sovereign in the light of a clandestine union in which none 
were concerned except the youthful parties themselves : 
and that being past remedy, to be forgiven and forgotten, 
as a fault, as soon as might be. By this contrivance, and 
the peculiar aspect thus given of the affair, the hostility 
of Griffith ab Kunnan, towards the Prince of South Wales 
became nullified ; as, to pursue his own son-in-law with a 
murderous intent, was entirely out of the order of crimes 
known in those days of kindred love, and wouM have 
stigmatized with infamy either subject or sovereign who 
could be guilty of it Thus while these prudent princes 
gently deprived their father of the power of mischief in that 



338 



GWENLLIAN. 



quarter without wounding his pride as a sovereign, the rest 
of his promised services to the King of England, by the 
same stroke of policy were also rendered entirely ineffective. 
Never were a youthful pair, of high destinies united under 
circumstances less favourable to immediate happiness, or 
the possession of domestic comforts, than what attended 
Griffith and Gwenllian. A rustic bower in the wild forest 
of Ystrad Towey,* afforded the best accommodations that 
the future sovereign of South Wales had to offer, for thei# 
nuptial couch. But the generous Gwenllian anticipated all 
such discomforts, ani like her excellent mother, under 
similar disastrous fortunes disdained to wait till the 
sunshine of prosperity casts its glories on the pompous halls 
and chambers of a citadel of safety within the walls of a 
garrisoned castle. The romantic ballad couplet 

" Betide me weal, betide me woe* 
O'er hill and dale with thee I'll go," 

describes the sentiment, and would have been an appro- 
priate motto for the adoption of this dauntless single- 
minded princess ; determined as she was, in the high spirit 
of adventurous enterprise, to brave the worst that could 
happen beside her chosen lord. The heart-devoted true 
womanhood of the primitive times was here developed in 
noble contrast to the calculating selfishness and squeamish 
caution of our modern Fine-lady-ism ; and in all the bear- 
ings of this youthful royal lady, we trace nothing but emi- 
nent generosity as the source of all her actions. Doubtless 
the stern realities of their precarious lodgment, on their 
first entrance into the forest of Ystrad Towey, was any 
thing but favourable to the continuance of mere 
romantic sentiment; but the worst discomforts that 
could beset them were utterly unable to generate 
discontent or impatience, in the bosoms of this 
devoted pair. What availed the evils opposed to their feli- 
cities, when glowing aspirations towards a happy and glo- 
rious future, bade them disdain the present petty obstruc- 
tions placed between them and their final destiny. Affection 

* In Carmarthenshire, South Wales. 



GWENLLTAN. 339 

the most pure and tender, connubial love, was ever present, 
to blunt the edge of distastefulness in their inauspi- 
cious days, and they could even afford to laugh at the shifts 
and discomforts, incidental to their houseless, homeless, 
semi-savage condition ; while meaner spirits would have 
sunk under such inflictions. 

It was in the year 1116, that the events just narrated 
took place. Determined to win a better home for his lovely- 
bride, with the utmost speed Griffith ab Rees collected the 
adherents of his cause and the long-established friends of 
his family, around him in the forest of Ystrad Towey, and 
made them acquainted with his plans and the courses which 
he meant to pursue for reconquering the long-lost British 
sovereignty of the country. At the head of these faithful 
friends he issued forth and commenced immediate hostilities 
against the Normans and Flemings. Success attended all 
his movements, and he destroyed several strong castles 
belonging to the English. On his forces increasing, which 
was a daily occurrence, he extended his warlike operations 
into that strong hold of the English and Flemings, the 
district of Pembroke, even to this day called Little England 
beyond Wales ; but kept aloof from the possessions of his 
brother-in-law Gerald de Windsor. Elated with his career 
of success and grown audacious in his daring, he even 
menaced with a siege the strong castle of Carmarthen^, 
which the king of England had made the principal seat of 
his government. The Norman officers who had the charge 
of this fortress, struck with the daring character of Griffith 
ab Rees's operations, judging that their own forces were 
insufficient to maintain the place, sent for the Welsh chief- 
tains who were the sworn vassals of the king of England, 
requiring each of them, with their followers, to defend the 
castle in their turns for fourteen days ; and accordingly the 
fortress was delivered into their custody. Owen ab Cara- 
doc whose mother was a daughter of Bleddyn ab Cynvin 
was the first on whom its defence devolved. Learning 
from the spies whom he had sent to reconnoitre the strength 
of the place, that the works were assailable, Griffith ab Rees 
suddenly invested it. 

2 e 2 



340 GWENLLIAN. 

The spirited manner in which this powerful fortress was 
attacked and carried, has been more minutely recorded than 
the generality of such actions ; and may give some idea of 
the resistless impetuosity with which this gallant prince 
conducted his various enterprizes of this description. It 
appears that his mode of attacking castles was not unlike 
the manner of our sailors in boarding the ship of an enemy. 
Griffith ab Rees and his followers, ii#lhe imperfect light of 
the declining day made their way towards any guarded 
part of the castle, and contrived in secresy and silence to 
climb or scale the battlements. When the whole party had 
attained the summit of the walls they united in a terrific 
shout, that announced their presence to Owen ab Caradoc, 
and at the same time rushed forward, sword in hand, and 
assailed the bewildered foe. The temporary comman- 
dant, relying on the support of his garrison, dashed forward 
to repel the invaders. His gallant efforts however were 
unavailing ; deserted by his soldiers who were supposed to 
be favourable to the cause of Griffith ab Rees and Welsh 
independence, Owen ab Caradoc was slain on the ramparts, 
and the castle yielded to the conquerors. The town of 
Carmarthen, inhabited entirely by the vassals or partizans of 
the king of England, was taken, plundered, and demolished ; 
but the castle was only dismantled. Griffith ab Rees then 
wisely retreated ; aware of the extensive combinations of 
his foe3, to unite their forces for his destruction. The 
costly spoils of war taken in this splendid campaign, from 
the different fortresses which he had conquered, and lastly 
from the important town and castle of Carmarthen, enabled 
him to reward his followers amply; who, in high spirits 
and literally loaded with treasure, accompanied him on his 
return to his strong and temporary home in the forest of 
Ystrad Towey : where once more, he sought brief repose 
in the company of Gwenllian. 

From motives of prudence that do credit to his sagacity- 
he abstained for a while from making any particular demon- 
stration of his strength, allowing it to accumulate before he 
again took the field; but from his forest camp, on the op- 
portunities suggested to him from the reports of his spies, 



GWENLLIAN. 341 

or the country people, he occasionally issued forth, with a 
small but desperate band, and committed terrible havoc 
upon his enemies. His absence and retreat were alike so 
sudden, that in these superstitious times they appeared truly 
supernatural; and such were the rap'dity and mystery of his 
movements, that neither friend nor foe could cal ;ulate upon 
his presence or absence. Thus was he at leugth, feared 
when far away, as if invisibly, close at hand; and when dis- 
covered to be so in reality, the terror of his name performed 
more than half the work of the sword and bow. Like the 
heroic Wallace of Scotland whom he resembled in many 
points, but whom he preceded about a century, he frequently 
rushed from his forest covert, and like the avenging spirit 
of his wronged country, dealt destruction upon its foreign 
occupants and oppressors. Woe to the tax-gatherers 
of those days — who in armed bodies issued from those strong 
holds of tyranny, the gloomy Norman castles, and wherever 
they could, either by bullying, cajoling, or the gently 
persuasive power of blows, compelled the poor tiller of the 
soil, personally and by his servants, to take the produce of 
his land, wood, corn, or cattle, to be consumed and devoured 
in those fearful dens of sensuality and brute coercion. The 
name of Griffith ab Rees, with the slightest demonstration 
of a force, we may imagine, has scattered not a few of such 
unceremonious visitor*, and kept at home the booty intended 
for the lordly robber and his confederate followers and 
retainers. Woe to the Norman, Saxon, or Fleming, whoever 
ventured in slight strength, to wander from the shelter of 
their strong walls — the name of the Welsh liberator, shouted 
by a few of his partizans, even in his absence ; would hurry 
homeward a host of such enemies, who could be fortunate 
enough to escape the swords of their assailants. 

Griffith ab llees had by this time gained considerable 
reputation as a leader, and won the confidence of the country. 
The people began to see in him their destined liberator from 
English bondage, and their future sovereign. The best 
patriots of the country, whose prudence had hitherto kept 
them aloof from the projects of a young untried adventurer, 
now, inspired with a sense of his high talents, great capa- 



H^ 3 




342 



GWENLLIAN. 



bility, and dauntless heroism, recognized in him also the 
genuine offspring of the gallant Rees ab Tudor, now rushed 
to his standard with ardour ; in full belief that the day was 
approaching when he would recover the Cambrian sway and 
mount the long-vacated throne of South Wales.* 

Thus reinforced Griffith lost no time in pursuing his suc- 
cess, and once more came out in his strength, resigning for 
a while those conjugal endearments which had been to him 
so sweet a relaxation from the toils of war; and poor Gwen- 
llian, now a mother, resigned herself again to the solitude of 
the forest, supported by the best hopes of a tranquil and 
felicitous future. Griffith soon made himself master, suc- 
cessively, of two more fortresses. These were the castle of 
Gower, in Glamorgan, and the castle of Kidwelley, in Car- 
marthen. He then retired again to his forest home, with . 
the cattle and other spoil so bravely won, and so seasonably 
acquired for the food and pay of his array. 

The acquisition of the castle of Kidwelley, of which he 
had deprived Maurice de Londres, one of the most stern, 
proud, and vindictive of the Anglo-Norman barons, in his 
bearing and retaliations on the Welsh who opposed the 
usurpations of his countrymen, makes an especial feature at 
this season of the career of Griffith ab Rees. It will be re- 
membered by the reader, where we have stated in the memoir 
of Nest, daughter of Iestyn ab Gwrgant, how this district 
was invaded and torn from its original proprietors by 
William de Londres, the grandfather of this Maurice ; and 
how the castle of Kidwelley was built to protect the dis- 

* We notice with indignation how Warrington, in his history of Wales, 
takes pleasure in assimilating the young prince to a robber chief, although 
fighting in the best cause that ever drew a patriot warrior's sword, the libe- v 
ration of his country from the usurped occupation of ravaging murderous for- 
eigners, whose aim was to annihilate the native deprived proprietors. That 
historian calls the spoils taken in war " booty," and " plunder ;" and likens the 
heroic chieftain to a fierce tiger, issuing forth to ravage the country. The 
only motive which he assigns for the influx of Welshmen who at this time 
joined the army of Griffith, was the attraction of the " spoil," and the view of 
sharing in the future plunder of the enemy ; although he cannot but admit " the 
feme which he had acquired drew to his standard great numbers of men, 
whose age and spirit were congenial to his own ; and who admiring his courage 
and activity, felt a conviction of his ultimate i 



GWENLLIAN. 348 

honest and unwarriorlike acquirement in question. Con- 
ceiving the winning of this fortress to be a signal retribution 
on the iniquitous proceedings of those who had erected it on 
land belonging to others, he seems to have enjoyed its pos- 
session beyond the rest of his conquests. It is supposed that 
at this period he made it his residence, and removed the 
Princess Gwenllian and his infant heir from the gloomy forest 
of Ystrad Towey to the security of its well-appointed walls 
and towers. 

These and former exploits of Griffith ab Rees, his astonish- 
ing success against the massive walls and strongly garrisoned 
Norman castles, supported only by the naked valour, as we 
may term it, of his highly excited and patriotic mountaineers, 
had their due effect in influencing the minds of men, friends 
as well as foes. The fame of his heroic actions, as if borne 
on the wings of the wind, was carried far and wide ; and 
served as much to strike his opponents with dismay as to 
nerve and inspirit his own partizans. At length the chief- 
tains of Caredigion, of Cardigan, although noted for their 
slow calculating caution, (a characteristic which their de- 
scendants still retain,) espoused his cause with heart and 
hand; tendered their submission to his government, and sent 
a deputation to invite -him to visit their country, with a 
promise to aid him in routing thence the foreigners, and 
punishing those natives of the district who continued in 
their vassalage to England 'and were opposed to the re- 
actionary movements of the day. Delighted with such an 
instance of patriotism from a quarter so long infested by the 
Normans and the degenerate Welshmen, who had become 
the creatures of the English king, he lost no time in acceding 
to their proposal. He entered their territories in high 
heart ; and was received with cordiality and honor ; — such 
as faithful subjects might tender to an acknawledged 
sovereign, whose right to the southern throne was unques- 
tionable. From the first hour of his entrance into this part 
of the country, the most northern district of South "Wales, 
Griffith maintained the high reputation which he had pre- 
viously gained. With his usual rapidity of movement, and 
startling presence where least expected, he appeared sud- 



344 GWENLLIAN. 

denly with his forces in Cardigan Iscoed, and laid siege to 
a fortress which the earl of Striguil had erected at Blaen- 
porth Gwithan. This castle held out bravely for many 
hours ; but after a hard contest, where victory was most 
obstinately sought by each party, after sustaining many 
assaults and great destruction of human life, it yielded at 
length; and Griffith ab Rees caused it to be burnt to the 
ground. It is recorded that this victory cost the winner 
but the life of one man — an astonishing proof of his excel- 
lent arrangements, and the good fortune which attended his 
expeditions : and well would it have been for him and his 
cause had these continued, but the brilliance of his career 
was soon to be dimmed by the gathering clouds of adversity. 
The victor then shaped his course towards Penwedic, 
principally inhabited by the English and their Welsh par- 
tizans. Aware that they would become the peculiar objects 
of his vengeance, these people fled with the utmost dismay 
from the approach of the Welsh army, and their deserted 
houses were stripped and burnt to the ground. In brief 
space after this he laid siege to a fortress called Ystrad 
Peithyll, in Cardigan, belonging to the steward of the earl 
of Striguil, which he took by assault; and with a severity 
by do means commendable, however excusable on the score 
of retaliating vengeance, which marked the barbarous spirit 
of the times, he put the garrison to the sword. 

Here may be said to terminate the prosperous part of the 
career of Griffith ab Rees. His future attempts to recover 
the throne of his ancestors will be found marked with dis>- 
asters unknown to his earlier movements. Nor was Fortune 
alone to blame as the sole cause of his reverses ; as we no 
longer can trace the same line of conduct, the wise precau- 
tionary tact, nor even the same intrepidity which formerly 
insured the invariable success of his enterprises. Although 
our main object has been to put forth every attainable 
record of the life of his wife Gwenllian, our discerning 
readers who are conversant with Welsh history will be 
aware how scanty are the notices of that princess until cir- 
cumstances altered her position, and from the gentle wife of 
a hero she became herself a heroine — a change of character 



GWENLLIAN. 345 

as disadvantageous to her, as it proved fatal in the end, 
however admirable in the peculiarity of its features. Thus 
it will be conceded that it was indispensable that the 
achievements of Griffith ab Rees should be detailed, in order 
to indicate the exact standing of Gwenllian herself— her 
mere position — the utmost that could be done, with due 
regard to historical fidelity. With this apology for her long 
absence from view, and her meagre personal records, we 
return to the national movements of her times — whose floods 
at length were to bear the intrepid little barque of her fortunes 
into publicity — only to sweep it to destruction. 

On the conquest of Ystrad Peisyll castle Griffith marched 
his army towards Aberystwith castle, with the view of cap- 
turing, and adding that powerful fortress to the rest of his 
conquests. His deviations from his former wise courses were 
immediately apparent on his arrival there. Instead of ap- 
pearing suddenly with his array before the castle, like a host 
of demons bursting from a thunder-cloud, and commencing 
an instantaneous attack, while the foe was under a panic of 
surprise and terror, as in former instances, he resolved on 
encamping his exhausted army at Plas Creeg,* at a short 
distance and within sight of the threatened fortress, and 
giving them a day's rest. Doubtless such rest and recruit- 
ing of their exhausted strength and spirits after their late 
exertions were highly needful ; but all that should have been 
effected before his arrival at the place of his final destination 
— and in such secresy as the wild country through which 
they passed, easily admitted ; and within the distance of a 
short march from the scene of his intended operations. As 
one error is generally a leader to another, in addition to this 
military blunder, he ordered or permitted his soldiers to 
seize and slay for their food certain cattle, then feeding 
within the precincts of the great sanctuary church of Llan- 
badan-vawr, in the immediate neighbourhood of the place of 
his encampment. This, as might have been expected, created 
him new enemies, who otherwise might have been his friends, 
or at least would have remained neutral during these cou- 

* In Welsn written Plas Crug, but the latter word is pronounced Creeg. 



346 GWENLLXAN. 

tentions. The indignant priesthood, keenly tenacious of 
their privileges and the inviolability of their sacred order, 
vindictively sensitive to the scorn and defiance implied by 
this offence were artful and malignant enough to place him 
in the light of a profane man, the declared foe of the church 
itself, and a sacrilegious violator both of human and divine 
ordinances. It certainly detracts from the merit of this 
chieftain, whom we have been justified in regarding hitherto 
both as a wise prince and a generous hero, that his charac- 
teristic shrewdness could not have anticipated these results ; 
and that he should have forgotten his deep obligations to an 
institution like this, whose rights he now violated; as he 
doubtless owed the preservation of his life to the monks of 
the sanctuary of Aberdaron, when menaced by Griffith ab 
Kunnan, as the agent of the king of England. It has been 
urged in extenuation of this fatal step, that however im- 
politic, the exhausted state of the Welsh army made the 
measure indispensible ; but had Griffith ab Rees encamped 
and refreshed his forces elsewhere, as before suggested, both 
his first and second blunder could have been avoided. The 
consequences of both these errors immediately followed their 
commission. The governor of Aberystwith castle sent to 
Ystrad Meyric castle, the nearest English military station, 
for a reinforcement; and it is highly probable that the 
willing messenger dispatched on this occasion, was one of 
the monks belonging to the sanctuary establishment of Llan- 
badan vawr, whose irritated feelings would make him the 
ready instrument of the revenge of his brotherhood -, while 
the sacredness of the priestly character would enable him 
to pass unquestioned by either the Welsh or English, when 
every other description of person was liable to be arrested 
in his progress by the soldiery or partizans of Griffith ab 
Rees. 

The reinforcement, however, was duly sent, and arrived 
in the course of the night at Aberystwith castle; which 
could not have happened had a vigilant watch been kept 
through the night, and the picquets and sentinels of the 
Welsh been on their guard. Thus when Griffith brought 
his army next day to invest the castle, the governor was 



GWENLLIAN. 347 

fully prepared for his reception. Ignorant of all this, the 
Welsh prince, with his usual confidence, assured his army of 
the certainty of their success, if they behaved with their 
former intrepidity. The relaxation of discipline consequent 
upon their late festal enjoyment, which was probably 
attended with a dissipated indulgence in drink, however, 
had given the soldiers a disorderly impulse ; and Griffith 
upon this eventful occasion appeared incapable of keeping 
under due restriction a tumultuous body of men, who 
seemed more disposed to follow their own respective notions 
and inclinations, than yield obedience to the dictates of 
their prince and commander, who had so frequently led 
them on to victory. Consequences the most fatal speedily 
ensued. The English governor, who appears to have been 
a brave and sagacious commander, lured the Welsh into a 
labyrinth of inextricable difficulties, which he had prepared 
for them. A body of mounted troops suddenly issued from 
the castle, and rode off with eager speed in the direction of 
Mount Pendinas, without any indication of entering on im- 
mediate conflict further than self-defence, in case of being 
attacked, and to cut their way through any impediments 
thrown in their course. A large portion of the Welsh army, 
with blind impetuosity, immediately rushed to encounter it, 
following their foes across the river Rheidol, to the foot of 
Pendinas hill. Behind that mount the English governor 
had placed an ambuscade, consisting of a large detachment 
of his forces. The moment the Welsh were thus decoyed 
to cross the river, the party which they had pursued sud- 
denly faced about to attack them ; at the same time the 
party in ambush rushed forward to their aid. Discovering 
their inveiglement too late, and the hopelessness of success- 
fully engaging such an overwhelming force, they attempted 
flight, in the direction they came ; but found their retreat 
cut off by a division of English archers, which lined the 
opposite bank of the Rheidol, that had occupied the point 
immediately on their crossing it, and thus irretrievably fell 
into the snare so adroitly prepared for them. Thus hemmed 
in by enemies on all sides, the Welshmen saw that nothing 
remained for them but to fight to the last, aud to die like 
2 ? 



348 GWENLLIAN. 

gallant men, sword in hand. A desperate conflict ensued ; 
but surrounded as they were by such superior numbers, 
although battling with the fury of despair, overwhelmed 
at length, they sank beneath the multitude of foes, and to a 
man were cut to pieces. 

Prince Griffith, who remained with the main body of his 
army before Aberystwith castle, was speedily informed of 
this disastrous issue, and soon saw the triumphant troopers 
returning, with their blooded swords ostentatiously dis- 
played, and preparing to assail the remnant of his army. 
A powerful force from the castle made a spirited sortie in 
the opposite direction, and soon the engagement became 
general. The Welsh, with their usual impetuosity, fought 
desperately ; but found themselves overmatched by the 
united forces of the two castles, and giving way at length, 
in a panic of despair, commenced a disorderly flight. In 
the pursuit many were cut to pieces ; and Prince Griffith 
himself, for the first time during his military career, had to 
seek his safety in the general flight, and it was with con- 
siderable difficulty he escaped with his life. 

These were direful tidings for poor Gwenllian. It is 
probable that Griffith was the bearer of them himself; and 
that foreseeing how his foes would pursue their advantages, 
he removed his wife from Kidwelly castle, and again sought 
refuge with her in his old haunts, the forest of Ystrad 
Towey. 

On this part of the life of Griffith ab Rees, Warrington 
judiciously remarks. " The conduct of this prince, which 
brightened his early life, promised to open with still greater 
lustre ; but the disaster which he had lately experienced, or 
perhaps a diminished reputation, seems to have given a check 
to his career, and to have cooled the ardour of his enter- 
prizing spirit." 

Encouraged by the evil fortunes which had befallen the 
Welsh prince, Henry L, king of England, now aimed at his 
utter destruction ; and agreeable to the unscrupulous pirate 
policy of the Norman race of sovereigns, determined on 
having him taken off by assassination. For this dark pur- 
pose he engaged the services of Owen ab Cadwgan, the 



GWENLLIAN. 349 

most atrocious and determined villain to be found among 
the degenerate Welshmen of those times. The particulars 
of the attempt, failure, and death of that notorious ruffian, 
have been narrated in our memoir of the Lady Nest, wife of 
Gerald de Windsor, and sister to Griffith ab Rees, to which 
we refer the reader. In this mission of murder, to the per- 
formance of which he was piously sworn on the Evangelists 
by the " scholar king," Henry Beauclerc, the " merrie 
monarch" of the twelfth century, Owen ab Cadwgan marked 
out for himself a peculiar line of policy, certainly worthy of 
himself, his ferocious confederate, Llewarch, son of Trahaern 
ab Caradoc, and his equally savage employer. This was, to 
seek his intended victim amid the fastnesses of the forest 
in his retreat of Ystrad Towey — to slaughter every inhabitant 
in that district, and burn each dwelling to the ground ; so 
that it would be impossible for Prince Griffith either to find 
a roof to shelter him, or to escape in disguise. Notwith- 
standing this diabolical scheme, which as far as he was able, 
he carried into effect to the last hour of his pernicious life, 
the miserable miscreant perished himself, in that very forest 
which he had destined to be a fiery furnace for the destruc- 
tion of every creature, human or otherwise, within its 
boundary. 

Of the earliest entrance of Owen and his myrmidons into 
the forest, fortunately Prince Griffith gained timely in- 
telligence ; and with his wife and infant family, assisted by 
some of their attached friends and domestics, got safely out 
©f the reach of danger, leaving behind them all their domes- 
tic and other worldly possessions a prey for the rapacity of 
the depredators. The details of their escape, or where next 
they sheltered or sojourned, have found no record in the 
pages of history ; but it is evident that in these evil times 
they found friends among the patriots of the land, by whom 
they were served, loved, reverenced, and intensely honored. 
However harsh these calamitous visitations were to Griffith 
himself, they could not be otherwise than doubly severe to 
Gwenllian — a delicate female and a young mother — as well 
as to the children of tender age. But this generous daughter 
of a reigning sovereign, and wife of a refugee prince, sus- 



350 GWENLLIAtf. 

tained her trials and endured the gall and wormwood of her 
lot with the sublimated spirit of a heroine and a martyr; 
and, as we shall soon see, upheld these glorious charac- 
teristics to the latest hour of her existence. 

Although Prince Griffith was fortunate enough to escape 
the dagger of the assassin, and the horrors of suffocation in 
the fired forest, yet he had to endure the bitter fortune of 
being deserted by his former partizans, the minions of his 
prosperous days ; who now imagined that the splendid 
dream of his rising fortunes, and the liberation of the 
country from the odious government of foreigners, was but 
a vision of delusion that never could be realized. Many of 
these not only reentered into vassalage to the king of 
England, but actually turned their arms against the un- 
fortunate prince, their late leader, victorious commander, 
and legitimate sovereign. Thus he was not only forsaken 
by his natural subjects, but stood in continual peril of assas- 
sination by other secret emissaries of England, so that he 
found it necessary to seek a secret abiding place, probably 
often changed, and to venture abroad only in disguise. 
The faithful Gwenllian, however, solaced him in his solitude, 
and encouraged his hopes of better times, evincing her de- 
votedness to his person and broken fortunes as ardently in 
those dark days of danger, destitution, and despondency, as 
in those hours of brilliant vision when the star of his destiny 
seemed ascending to the zenith of permanent success. 

Although this deplorable disorder of affairs lasted several 
years, we have no account of any of the occurrences in the 
family of Prince Griffith ; the only details which have floated 
down the tide of time are those which record that several 
children born to Griffith and Gwenllian, were nursed and 
instructed by their parents in these days of adversity, that 
in after time did credit to their parentage. But neither the in- 
nocence nor bravery of the youthful unfortunates, as will soon 
be seen, could preclude them from the general fate of Cam- 
brian patriots, of having their names inscribed on the awful 
tablet of national calamity. Other insurgent chieftains 
arose in arms against the king of England — worthless men, 
who, in order to be supported in possessions unjustly oh- 



GWENLLIAN. 



351 



tained, yielded servile vassalage to the English crown ; but 
on feeling the galling weight of the yoke they had bargained 
for, evinced a turbulent desire to assert the independence 
which they had so basely sold, aiming at the same time to 
dignify their selfish quarrel by the hallowed designation of 
patriotism. From such as these Griffith ab Rees proudly 
stood aloof, disdaining the slightest participation in their 
affairs. But there were other reasons why he could make 
no common cause with these men, whatever might be their 
undertakings, which will be perceivable when it is stated 
who they were. They were no other than the three 
brothers of the late atrocious Owen ab Cadwgan, and their 
uncle Meredith, the sole survivor of the three sons of 
Bleddyn ab Cynvin — the most servile of the unworthy 
Welshmen of the times, who became the ready instruments 
in the hands of Henry for subduing the liberties of their 
country. The hostile feeling between this base family and 
Prince Griffith doubtless received considerable accession by 
the circumstance that their kinsman, Owen ab Caradoc, 
had met his death at his hand, although in fair fight, on the 
ramparts of Carmarthen castle, on the storming of that 
fortress in 1116. 

In the year 1121 the king of England entered Wales in 
hostile array, for the ostensible purpose of punishing thos« 
vassals who had revolted from their allegiance ; but doubt- 
less Henry calculated that the crushing vengeance with 
which he had threatened them might be made to fall on 
Griffith ab Rees, as his principal victim, for whose destruc- 
tion in various ways he had laboured so long, and whose 
existence, as the living representative of Welsh sovereignty 
in the South, was the grand source of his disquietude, and 
the only bar to the annexation of that principality to the 
English crown. Henry was too imperiously proud to recog- 
nise the dignified bearing of Prince Griffith, in thus absent- 
ing himself from a battle field in which he was not a princi- 
pal, and where the stake in the game of war was anything 
less than the crown of his ancestors. Although opposed by 
adversaries of far inferior pretension and capacity to Griffith 
ab Rees, King Henry found warfare among the Welsh 
2 f 2 



352 GWENLLlAtf. 

mountains no holiday pastime, and soon returned to England 
without accomplishing the objects of his ostentatious threats, 
and narrowly escaped with his life. 

Construing the long cessation of Griffith ab Rees from 
active operations against England in no other light than the 
probable one that he was secretly preparing a general rise 
in the country to favor his pretensions, he resolved on a 
new line of conduct towards that unhappy prince. Veiling 
his concession under the assumption of an act of grace for 
not being in arms against him in the late hostilities, he 
offered him the secure possession of certain domains of 
limited extent, on the terms that he should no more make 
war on English subjects, or the Welsh vassals of England. 
Either from despair of success, owing to the evil aspect of 
the times, or a tender regard for the matronly comforts of 
his long-enduring wife Gwenllian, to secure for whom a 
tranquil home once more, at whatever cost, must have been 
one of the dearest objects of his life ; he was induced to 
accede to this proposal, and accepted the offer. Such a 
public acknowledgment of the delusion of his aspiring 
hopes, as was implied by this acceptance, was doubtless 
immensely galling to his feelings, but the sacrifice, however 
great, had become imperiously indispensable, perhaps, to the 
very existence of the beloved partner of his sufferings and 
perils, who was no longer able to stand up against the 
continued buffets of adversity. 

The locality of their new home is not on record, but 
wherever it was, it appears to have been surrounded by the 
liegemen of England, under whose surveillance they passed 
their cheerless days. In this equivocal asylum, brooding 
over their broken fortunes, Griffith and his wife, the subject 
of this memoir, with their young family, lived a quiet 
retired life for the space of six years. It is to be inferred, 
they were never on gracious terms with either the Norman 
lords or their Welsh partizans during this period ; and that 
the only society acceptable to them would be that of the 
known patriots of the land, who like themselves moved joy- 
lessly about under the settled gloom of adversity. But even 
thi3 state of sepulchral tranquillity was destined to be brought 



GWENLLIAN. g&J 

to brief termination, and the sufferers to be thrown again on 
the turbulent ocean of worldly cares and dissension. In the 
year 1127, the sixth of their sojourn in this prison-like re- 
treat, a complaint was made to King Henry against Prince 
Griffith, the nature of which has never transpired, although 
all the historians agree in terming the charge u fictitious." 
Probably the haughty Normans felt chagrined at the lofty 
bearing assumed by the prince ; and as he neither visited 
them or received their visits, nothing could be more likely 
that they should describe those whom he did receive, as the 
supposed or known enemies of the king, and consequently 
to insinuate or audaciously assert that he was secretly hatch- 
ing a new rebellion. On this charge Prince Griffith was 
deprived of his domain, and with his wife and family, again 
became houseless, homeless, and in fact, a fugitive in his 
native land, of which he was the rightful sovereign. War- 
rington states and remarks on this passage in his life, 
" though given for the support of his family, or to secure 
his fidelity, this estate was however taken from him by Henry, 
on a fictitious charge brought against him by the Normans 
near whom he resided. There was something singular and 
cruel in thus driving a prince into want, dependence, and 
despair, in the very country of which he was the natural 
sovereign." 

Under these grievous circumstances, nothing consolatory 
remained for them but that poor Gwenllian should accom- 
pany her husband, and take to the forest life once more, 
within the leafy wilderness of Ystrad Towey. The charred 
and burnt trees and the ruins of human dwellings, the happy 
homes of many of their devoted followers, effected by the 
inhuman fury of Owen ab Cadwgan, gave the earliest indi- 
cation of the sad change which had taken place since the 
departure of the family thence ; among which, on a further 
advance into the recesses of the wood, the destruction of 
their former rude, but ponderously secure dwelling place, 
was the most affecting and melancholy spectacle. It was 
there, a spot especially endeared to her, Gwenllian could not 
but remember, with the tenderest feelings of a mother, that 
all her children first saw the light of the turbulent world, 



854 GWENLLIAN. 

in which they were so early called upon to enact their parts. 
These Mere her three boys :— Rhys, born in 1117, and now 
in his tenth year, and his two brothers, Maelgwn and Mor 
gan, who were twins, a year younger. In brief space, with 
the affectionate aid of the strongly attached cottars of the 
forest, Griffith with his active sons and willing servants, 
soon reared another capacious and secure dwelling, of which 
the hoary fathers of the ancient wood formed the principal 
materials. And here, the high-hearted family of royal 
fugitives, reposing once more within the arms of liberty, 
although sharing the savage haunts of the wolf, the wild boar, 
and the deer, felt their bosoms glow and their hearts dilate, as 
the breeze of freedom invigorated their frames and buoyed 
up their future hopes— now that no despot's minions blighted 
their intercourse with the expanded eye of espial and malig- 
nant observance — when the open ear of the eaves-dropper no 
longer caught their accents, and checked the free expression 
of their thoughts and feelings, or the poisonous tongue of 
obloquy could no longer forge the unfounded tale of accu- 
sation, to drive them into further destitution, at the impe- 
rious mandate of a foreign tyrant. 

Tidings of the expulsion of Prince Griffith and his family 
by the Normans, and his return to Ystrad Towey, soon 
reached and gladdened his friends in various districts far 
and near, and many assembled round him, to render present 
aid, and to assist in whatever enterprizes he might plan for 
the future. Thus, while occasionally acting the part of the 
intrepid hunter to supply h\s family board, he continued his 
former mode of annoyance to the English, although neces- 
sarily on a reduced scale, for eight years of severe trial (from 
1127 to 1135), when a political event occurred of astounding 
interest, that immediately changed the aspect of his affairs, 
and filled his heart with all the glowing ardour and the am- 
bitious aspirations of his early life. These buoyant and ex- 
hilarating sensations were equally shared by our gallant 
Gwenllian, who had fared and battled with so many troubles 
by his side ; and their mutual enthusiasm was naturally 
imbibed by their hopeful sons, when the new events of the 
hour were explained to them. 



GWENLLIAN. 355 

The agitating and all-engrossing event to which we refer 
was the death of that mortal enemy of the Welsh, and 
determined appropriator of their country, King Henry I. of 
England. This occurred in the year 1135, when the usur- 
pation of Stephen, which caused a civil war in England, 
immediately followed. These auspicious tidings were no 
sooner spread over the Cambrian territory than the whole 
country, North and South, seemed in a ferment of agitation, 
deeming the time at length arrived for casting off the 
English yoke, and a general revolt speedily followed. Gwen- 
llian had the satisfaction to learn, from information received 
by her husband from the North, that her aged father 
Griffith ab Kunnan now held himself free of the promises 
extorted from him by the late king, and with his gallant 
sons Owen, Gwyneth, and Cadwalader, was among ihe 
foremost to encourage the revolt to reconquer the 
liberties of their country. 

With such brightened prospects flashing on their imagi- 
nation a vivid change came over this long- depressed family ; 
all was excitement and mental renovation : and these feelings, 
like the products of a tropic summer, seemed to burst into 
leaf, flower, and fruitage simultaneously. Prince Griffith 
erected his war camp in the neighbouring open country 
adjoining the forest. The national colours of Wales, the 
renowned Red Dragon, on its field of green, floated from the 
top of the highest tree, denuded of its lower branches, so as 
to give it the appearance of a gigantic flag-staff; and seemed 
by its presence to tell the history of its elevation, inter- 
preted by its enthusiastic beholders as a prognostic of its 
ultimate triumph — thus inviting the patriots of the long- 
oppressed land to place their hopes and enlist their energies 
under that banner of their independence. The new spirit of 
the times, with electric force and rapidity in its universal 
transmission, seemed to pervade all bosoms. The natural 
subjects of Griffith, the men of South Wales, rushed forward 
from their various districts to offer their immediate services ; 
so that in brief space a large concourse of people, which were 
daily and hourly increasing, were seen assembled round him. 
Gwenllian now freed from the domestic duties of rearing 



356 GWENLLIAN. 

her offspring, her eldest son being eighteen, and the younger 
twin boys seventeen years of age, now proved she was equally 
capable of shining in a very different sphere, appeared 
actively engaged in welcoming, encouraging, and enter- 
taining these supporters of their own personal and the national 
cause, who thronged so numerously towards Ystrad Towey. 
Thus while the Normans and Flemings quailed within their 
castle walls, at these, to them, disastrous signs of the times, 
the Welsh rejoined to the melody of their many harpers and 
minstrels, or listened with deep attention and entire credence 
to the graver bards, who united with their poetic art the 
province of sooth-sayers, and were prodigal of their favour- 
able prophecies of the eventual success of their arms in the 
coming struggle. 

"After recovering his lands, (dominions) in 1135, Griffith 
abRees, had a large feast prepared in Ystrad Towey, whither 
he invited all to come in peace from North Wales, Powys, 
South Wales, Glamorgan, and the marshes. And he pre- 
pared everything that was good in meat and drink, wise con- 
versations, songs, and music ; and welcomed all poets and 
musicians; and instituted various plays, illusions, and ap- 
pearances, and manly exercises. And to the feast there 
came Griffith ab Kunnan and his sons, and many chieftains 
of various parts of Wales, and the feast was kept up for 
forty days, and all were allowed to depart, and the bards, 
musicians, learned men, and performers of every sort were 
honourably rewarded. After the feast Griffith ab Rees 
invited the wise men, and scholars, and consulting them, 
instituted rule and law on every person within his do- 
minions ; and fixed a court in every Cantrev, and an inferior 
court in every Coraot. Griffith ab Kunnan did the same 
in North Wales ; and the Normans and Saxons, sorry to see 
this, made complaints against these princes to King Ste- 
phen, who stating that he knew not .where the blame lay, 
declined to interfere." A very wise conclusion of the con- 
siderate King Stephen. Doubtless these astounding revi- 
vals, and other unmistakable signs of recovering national 
independence among the Welsh, must have been gall and 
wormwood to the deeply mortified barons of England, who 



GWENLLIAN. 357 

had been signally overthrown and driven out of the country 
where they had acquired immense possessions, built mighty 
castles, and so long exercised an unbounded usurped 
authority. And as to the poor usurper King Stephen, he 
was too deeply overwhelmed with his own perplexed 
affairs and the slight and dubious tenure on which he held 
his crown, to undertake the office of umpire, between his 
subject barons and the recovering fortunes of the princi- 
pality of South Wales. 

In his long-enforced seclusion, Griffith ab Rees had evi- 
dently reflected deeply on his former miscarriages, and pro- 
fiting by the stern lessons of adversity, which he wisely 
digested in his solitude, did not allow the present favorable 
appearances to elevate his hopes with undue buoyancy. 
He shrewdly foresaw the necessity of a very powerful force 
to carry out his designs, and therefore came to a resolution 
of visiting North Wales, the dominions of his father-in-law, 
where, he conceived, by the aid of that prince, he might 
obtain a reinforcement of disciplined troops, that would 
enable him, with the assistance of his native subjects, to 
prosecute the war with the vigor essential to so great an 
enterprize. Gwenllian heartily concurred in this proposal 
to visit her father's court, and conceived that even if the old 
prince should prove cool in the matter, that with the assured 
influence of her venerable mother and brothers, the happiest 
results would follow. It was settled that young Rees their 
eldest son should accompany his father, so that he should 
bear with him the best credentials for insuring a kind recep- 
tion from the whole family, when their grandson was pre- 
sented to the aged sovereigns — the elder son of their long- 
lost darling young daughter. Accordingly Griffith ab Rees 
and his son took an affectionate leave of Gwenllian, with 
the understanding that their return would be as speedy as 
the urgent necessity for his presence at home demanded. 

Alas, unhappy father and husband, and fond unhappy 
youth, whose cheeks are wet with the tears of parting — and 
alas for her, the more unhappy wife and mother — whose 
hopeful heart enabled her to endure this temporary sepa- 
ration ! little thought either that the farewell was to be 



358 GWENLLIAN. 

eternal, but so it proved — as our few remaining records of 
the life of this most unhappy and meritorious lady will too 
sadly declare, they have seen each other's love-beaming agi- 
tated faces for the last time in this life. 

Thus Gwenllian was left, with her two sons, Maelgwn and 
Morgan, whilst Prince Griffith and young Rees on their 
hardy mountain steeds pursued their journey towards North 
Wales, To those unacquainted with certain points in the 
national character of the Welsh, and indeed peculiar to the 
Celtic race generally, it may appear strange that this shrewd 
and clever prince should not appoint one of the chieftains 
to command in chief during his temporary absence. But 
Griffith knew the character of his countrymen better. How- 
ever obedient to him as their acknowledged sovereign and 
supreme leader, like all semi- barbarous people, the natives 
of the different districts of which these forces were com- 
posed, they would obey none but their own native chiefs; 
so that to give one the command over the rest, would be 
seen in no other light than an insult, a preference originating 
in mere favoritism ; as these ill-informed men were so in- 
tensely imbued with their local egotism, that they were 
utterly incapable of recognizing the superior fitness for 
command in any stranger, however eminent his qualifi- 
cations. In proof of this species of jealousy, we find when 
the Welsh chieftains became commandants to defend the 
castles which they had captured, or when in the same 
position as English vassals, instead of those fortresses 
having one perpetual governor, each claimed his turn to com- 
mand; and they were consequently changed, sometimes as 
frequently as every ten days — to prevent the heart-burnings, 
insubordination, and withdrawal with their forces in disgust, 
which would otherwise have been the certain consequence. 

Although these untrained men from various parts of the 
principality which constituted the new-formed army, rigidly 
adhered to their system of obeying no power beneath the 
sovereign except their own respective chieftains, still they 
vied with each other in their courteous deferential carriage 
towards Gwenllian and her sons, and were not only as 
respectful towards her as if prince Griffith were present, but, 



GWENLLIAN. 359 

in consideration of her sex and peculiar position, even more 
yielding and affectionate in their approaches. Indeed her 
dignified demeanour was so commingled with the simplicity 
of non-assumption, and her kindly and equal bearing 
towards all, wisely eschewing personal preference to any, 
that she could not fail with such a people, to win their 
respect and reverence. We can imagine her during their 
casual disputes on their return from their foraging and 
hunting expeditions, propitiating the most resentful and 
turbulent spirits, by exciting their self-esteem, reminding 
them how far it was beneath men of their eminence, engaged 
in the noblest of human undertakings, that of clearing their 
native soil from the odious sway of foreigners, to waste 
their energies on private broils and circumstances of trivial 
import : while with others, the conciliating tone of per- 
suasive friendliness would work their wealding natures into 
the gentlest mood of compliance — even eager to give up the 
most galling points which caused dissension, to win her 
smile of approbation. But notwithstanding the influence 
which her talents created among these rugged but warm- 
hearted mountaineers, her situation was very trying and soon 
became fraught with difficulties utterly unforeseen. 

The numerous forays and skirmishes in which Griffith ab 
Rees and his followers had been engaged for the last eight 
years had been very destructive to the Normans of the 
neighbouring castles, whose foragers, purveyors, and men 
at arms they had cut off in vast numbers, with but little loss 
to themselves. Those belonging to the castle of Kidwelly 
had been the principal objects of his hostility, in conse- 
quence of the base manner in which that district had been 
reft from its original proprietors, and the castle erected lo 
protect the unjust appropriation. The number of the gar- 
rison thus destroyed was so considerable that Maurice de 
Londres found it indispensable to recruit the thinned ranka 
of his people ; and for this purpose had sent to England for 
a reinforcement, which had been for some time expected. 
Although prince Griffith was aware of this circumstance, 
he calculated on his return from ? North Wales before these 
forces could arrive, and therefore gave no orders, nor made 
2g 



360 GWENLLIAN. 

any provison for cutting off this seasonable supply to the 
enemy, in case of their landing before his return. It is 
probable that about a week after his departure, some 
of the scouts employed to watch the coast came hastily 
to Gwenllian, and informed her of the actual landing 
ot the expected English forces on the coast of Glamorgan. 

It will now be seen that Gwenllian was a proper partner 
for a hero like prince Griffith. Embarrassing as this momen- 
tous circumstance was, it immediately occurred to her that 
if her lord was present and received such intelligence, that 
he would immediately summon his men, and with them 
hasten forth and waylay and cut off these approaching ene- 
mies, so as to prevent them from ever reaching the place of 
their destination. Therefore she saw the necessity of pur- 
suing a similar course ; and as no time was to be lost, the 
present was the season of instantaneous action. For the 
reasons already assigned she knew it would be too dangerous 
an experiment to give the command of the whole forces to 
any one of the chieftains ; but saw no other alternative than 
offering to become herself their supreme leader in the expe- 
dition. To apprize them of her views, she summoned 
together all the chieftains, and informed them of this Norman 
movement, and the immediate necessity for opposing it, 
with the probable consequence to themselves if their ene- 
mies were permitted to acquire such immense additional 
strength. In conclusion she modestly offered her own 
person to lead them to the attack, provided they could put 
faith in the courage and conduct of a woman on so impor- 
tant an occasion. Recognizing in this gallant offer the 
heroic sister of Owen Gwyneth, and the undegenerate 
daughter of an illustrious house whose far-famed progenitors 
gave an additional claim to t^eir ever trusting faith, the 
proposal was received with enthusiastic approbation. When 
the army were informed of the circumstance, their accla- 
mations of applause were astounding ; all professing their 
admiration of her heroic determination, and vowing to obey 
and protect her to the last moment of their existence. 

Alive to the exigencies of the times, with thorough mili- 
tary alacrity, Gwenllian was the first in readiness for an 



GWENLLlAN. 361 

instantaneous departure. Mounted on one of the sturdy 
sure-footed galUways, of which Griffith kept many ready 
at all times for such sudden emergencies, although not the 
most stately of war-steeds, yet the best species of cavalry 
which the country afforded, the gallant lady rode forth. 
On either side of her rode her brave excited boys Maelgwn 
and Morgan, proud of their novel position and resolved to 
win renown on the coming occasion, Vieing with each 
other in their devotedness to her service, her chieftains sur- 
rounded her person, while the different divisions of the foot 
soldiery under their various officers, occupied the van and 
rear ; and thus they moved on, as preconcerted, in thorough 
silence, and the utmost order conceivable. 

The route from the forest of Ystrad Towey to Kidwelly 
In a direct course might be about twenty miles ; but in their 
deviation from the side of the river Towey, and circuitous 
windings through unfrequented ways, in older to elude obser- 
vance, and to come suddenly into the neighbourhood of the 
hostile fortress, the march was extended to double that 
distance. After resting a night on their way, the next day- 
brought them in sight of the towers of Kidwelly castle. 
Keeping further off, they passed quietly on, for obvious rea- 
sons avoiding to make any demonstration till they were 
two miles below the castle; where Gwenllian posted her 
army at the foot of the mountain called Mynydd y Garreg, 
with the river Gwendraeth in her front ; being on the oppo- 
site bank to that on which the castle of Kidwelly stood. 
Gratified to learn through the information of her scouts that 
the expected reinforcements had not reached the castle, but, 
were undoubtedly now on the march, following the counsel 
of her chiefs, she now divided her army, dispatching tl\e 
larger portion in the direction of Glamorgan to intercept the 
expected convoys, while the rest remained on the spot, under 
her command. 

As we are now approaching the sad catastrophe that so tra- 
gically terminated the existence of the lady of this memoir, it is 
necessary to submit the following considerations to the atten- 
tion of the reader. History having recorded only the ultimate 
result of this expedition, without the intermediate chain of 



362 gwenlliAn. 

details necessary for our perception and general comprehen- 
sion, we are therefore thrown entirely on our conjectures as to 
the manner in which the grand denouement was brought to its 
close. From our knowledge of the scene of these occurrences 
and acquaintance with the traditions of the country, that sug- 
gest a train of analogous reasonings, the insertion of which, 
however, would greatly encumber this narrative, we conceive 
the following to bear the most veritable aspect of probability. 

On the second day of Gwenllian's occupation of this post, 
the Welsh forces occupying the height of Mynydd y Garreg 
were suddenly driven in with terrible slaughter by an over- 
whelming force. This was no other than the reinforcements 
so long expected at the castle, that under the conduct of a 
Welsh renegade named Griffith ab Llewellyn, sent to meet 
and conduct them, had eluded the vigilance of Gwenllian's 
detachment dispatched to oppose them ; and forming a 
circuitous line of march along the most wild and least 
suspectable routes imaginable, had thus, like a thunderclap, 
burst over the brow of Mynydd y Garreg, and commenced 
their furious assault on the army of the Welsh princess, 
whose situation had doubtlessly been previously made known 
to them by their spies. The approach of their long expected 
forces being certified to the castle, simultaneously with 
their descent from the mountain, the Baron Maurice de 
Londres headed a mighty sortie from the fortress, and 
having crossed the upper part of the river, rushed forward 
and made an equally violent attack on the Welsh, taking 
them in flank on the side opposite to that engaged by the 
other assailants. Thus this doomed remnant of the Cam- 
brian army was hemmed in between the two parties of 
assailants, composed probably of the entire strength of the 
castle, consisting of Normans, English, and their own sub- 
servient allies, the Flemings. Although the Welsh, with 
their usual bravery in the hour of desperate conflict, en- 
couraged by the voice and gestures of their dauntless princess, 
who led the attack, fought with the most determined reso- 
lution, their resistance was in vain ; and the result, ever to 
be expected when a small force is opposed to a greater, 
under the disadvantages of position, number, and discipline^ 



GWENLLIAN. 363 

became their unhappy lot. The larger portion of this 
gallant band was cut to pieces, and the rest surrounded 
and taken prisoners. Among the latter was the heroic 
Gvrenllian and her son Morgan : the wretched mother 
suffering from a wound she had received, but more intensely 
fr,om having seen her other son, Maelgwn, killed at her side, 
while warding off the blows aimed at his parent, to the last 
moment of his existence, presented a mournful picture for 
contemplation — dignified to the last, but pallid with ex- 
haustion and suppressed agony, calmly resigned to what- 
ever further ills the fortune of war might assign her. 

During the ascendancy of their prince, the Norman name 
was extolled by its parasites, almost to a parallel with 
ancient Roman greatness, than which in reality the world 
could scarcely present a greater contrast, to the disparage- 
ment of the modern descendants of freebooters. That 
name was associated with generous heroism, and the 
courtesies of chivalry — that hollow heartless fiction, which 
imposed on the world a semblance for reality, of what was 
supposed to be a movement towards human civilization. If 
it be imagined that these barons, so proud of their knightly 
honours, carried the much vaunted attributes of chivalry 
into the field of battle, and extended any degree of mercy or 
generosity towards a fallen foe, let tne dupes of the infatu- 
ation disabuse their minds at once from the influence of 
such ill-founded errors, and note well what History declares 
was their conduct in their dealings with the Welsh patriots 
who fell into their power : and most especially in the 
flagrant case under present consideration. 

Their illustrious captive was a woman — overwhelmed 
with heart-crushing calamities ; claims sufficient to engage 
every feeling of commiseration in the bosoms of manly 
warriors. She was wounded in the conflict, and besides her 
corporeal suffering, she endured the severest mental agony 
for the death of her valiant son just slain in her defence. 
She was of supreme high rank, daughter of the illustrious 
reigning sovereign of North Wales, wife of the rightful 
claimant of the throne of South Wales and had distinguished 
herself so gallantly in this fatal action as indisputably to 
2 g 2 



364 GWENLLIAN. 

have earned the title of a heroine, that might have won the 
admiration of a liberal foe. Surely these were touching 
claims on the magnanimity of a humane conqueror, setting 
aside the boasted " gentle Norman blood/' and chivalrous 
pride of knighthood, arrogated to themselves by this race, 
and still assigned to them by the writers of romance, as con- 
tradistinguished from the supposed rude and ferocious attri- 
butes of the native Britons. Yet with all these forcible appeals 
to the best feelings of humanity, and to those artificial distinc- 
tions of which men who had felt the ennobling sword of 
royalty on their shoulders, their knighthood, forsooth! then 
felt proud, the moment Gwenllian became the prisoner of 
the Normans her fate was sealed. In a furiou3 spirit of 
hasty vindictiveness, difficult to be understood except as a 
revolting occurrence incidental to barbarian warfare, where 
the rampant savage victor exults and riots amidst the gore 
and groans of his expiring victims, Maurice de Londres 
ordered her immediate execution, as if she had been a public 
criminal of his own nation, over whom he held legitimate 
command. And thus, amidst reviling enemies, and within 
the observance of her agonised son and captive countrymen, 
under the personal superintendence of the baron himself, 
and his second in command, the renegade Griffith ab Llew- 
ellyn, the head of the unhappy princess was struck off 
instanter. 

So lived, and thus inhumanly murdered, died the excellent 
Gwenllian ; exemplary alike in the respective characters of 
daughter, sister, wife, and mother. Ill as we are inclined to 
exhibit for admiration a departure on the part of woman 
from the prescribed walks or usages of her sex, we have 
proved that Gwenllian was free from the slightest imputa- 
tion of vanity or self-sufficiency in assuming the functions 
of a military commander. As before shown, the imperious 
pressure of events literally forced her into a position from 
which the previous modest tenor of her life evinces she 
would gladly have escaped, could any other plan for averting 
the impending danger have been available. Therefore, in 
spired by the signs of the alarming crisis foreshadowed in 
her mind, to spring forward at such a contingency, and in 



GWENLLIAN. 



365 



the right spirit of the hour to occupy such a post of peril 
and responsibility, became in her a virtue of the highest 
or( j er — when breaking the bonds of custom, and daringly 
original in her views, to become the representative of her 
absent husband, and the leader of his troops, at a time when 
very scanty prospects of glory shone on her destined path to 
allure her onwards. Who can contemplate the constancy of 
conjugal affection which distinguished her entire life without 
the most unqualified admiration ? She did not, like some of 
our modern " fine ladies," affect to have her sensibility wounded 
and overwhelmed by her husband's troubles, and quitting 
him when the presence of a kind woman was most needed, 
hurry to the comforts and security of the paternal roof, and 
*tay there till the disarrangement of his affairs were 
smoothed again for her return : — but in the virtuous spirit 
of true womanhood, kept at her post amidst the buffets of 
the wildest storm that beset him and his fortunes — ever at 
^lis side through weal and woe ! And when had woman to 
share harsher or more long-enduring vicissitudes ? It was 
not a matter of suffering for days, weeks, or months, but 
years — slowly dragging, or wildly tumultuous and danger- 
teeming years. Yet through all chances and changes, 
whether lodged in security within the castle tower, the 
peril surrounded mountain glen, or the savage seclusion of 
Ystrad Towey forest, or the still more dangerous shelter 
(accepted in haste and shunned as suddenly on the pre- 
sentiment of evil), rendered by native traitors in the guise 
of friends. Still Gwenllian was there, with her three boys 
and gallant husband, whom she nurtured and taught, soothed 
and solaced, in suffering and sorrow — sheltered at her bosom 
or by her side amidst the pangs of exhausted nature, from 
hunger, fatigue, and well-founded terror, occurring in nu- 
merous unrecorded instances, during the wild life fate had 
awarded this doomed family of royal fugitives, Who can 
follow up the varied stages of her endurances, to the last 
moment of her invaluable existence, and not be ready to 
exclaim, with heart-full conviction of her priceless worth, 
"this was, indeed, a true, a wonderful, and a glorious 
woman !" 



366 GWENLLIAN. 

That once awe-inspiring dreary pile, the Norman fortress, 
whence issued the dire doomster* and his ferocious train 
who compassed her destruction — what is it now ? It stands 
only in fragmentary desolation, a fitting monument of its 
own downfall ; and emblematic of the iron race that have 
passed away, whose corroded memory is foully associated 
with their deeds of blood and rapine. While the ever living 
earth on which Gwenllian stood — the self-same spot where 
she rallied her gallant people, that drank her blood as she 
fell a murdered prisoner, and that became her gory grave — 
is still as verdant in the pathetic memory of her fate, as with 
the green of each succeeding spring that clothes it with per- 
petual renovation. And while Mynydd y Garreg rears its 
head aloft, and the gentle Gwendraeth rolls its current 
towards the ocean, that memorable field of sad associations 
will ever bear her name; will ever bear historic interest 
enough to draw the Cambrian patriot to the scene of her 
exploits, sufferings, and sepulture ; and call from him the # 
touching utterance of its designation, in his native mother 
tongue — Maes Gwenllian. 

It is a remarkable circumstance in the history of this 
greatly injured princess, that the influence of Gwenllian did 
not cease with her existence ; but strange as veritable, 
seemed to acquire tenfold vigour when the once honoured 
bearer of it ',* slept the sleep that dreams not.'* Thib is no 
flourish of rhetoric to garnish a figure of speech, but a literal 
statement of reality, which we shall proceed to explain. It 
will ultimately be seen that the name, associated with the 
wrongs of an heroic princess, was the fertile cause of more 
prodigies of valour in the cause of national redemption and 
independence than could even be effected by her continued 
and uninjured existence. That the sense of national insult 
in her violated person quickened the lethargic spirit with 
which many who were called to engage in the general revolt 
against England appeared at first to be affected, while cal- 
culating on the chances of. war, in which they had so often 
been sufferers. Her tale once borne upon the wings of 
rumour, till heard and known to all, served to fire the heart, 
* Doomsier is the i cotch term for ihe execudouei or han^inau. 



. GWENLLIAN. 367 

insinew the arm, and give weight and edge to the steel 
of the newly roused patriot, as " Gwenllian's wrongs" be- 
came the incitement to arms, and the battle-cry when the 
struggle at length commenced. 

Prince Griffith ab Rees succeeded to the utmost of his 
most sanguine expectation, in the noble reception which was 
accorded to him and his son at the court of North Wales ; 
and the affectionate interest taken in his fortunes, by the 
patriarchal old king, Griffith ab Kunnan, and his venerable 
queen Angharad, was truly gratifying, and surpassed his most 
favourable anticipations. With Owen Gwyneth and Cad- 
walader, their two noble sons, he had ever been as a brother, 
and the cordiality with which they received him and met his 
aspiring views, may be conceived, from the frank and ardent 
character which ever distinguished these martial and accom- 
plished princes, and their known hostility to that power 
which had aimed to crush him, and still opposed his rightful 
claim to the crown of South Wales. The intercourse which 
fortune had thus afforded them with the illustrious husband 
of their beloved sister, the particulars of whose fate had been 
so long unknown to the family, may be conceived to be as 
delightful to them as to himself. His affecting narrative of 
the events connected with the dark cloud of adverse fate 
which had so long supplanted the sunshine of his early pros- 
perity, could not but engage their deepest sympathy. The 
impassioned outpouring of his warm-hearted praise which 
he rendered their sister, as he described the faithfulness 
with which she adhered to his broken fortunes, in all his re- 
verses and perils, and the noble manner in which she fulfilled 
the duties of a wife and mother, under circumstances the 
most distressing and discouraging, served to rivet in closer 
hold the manly brotherhood already existing between them ; 
while their desire to embrace again their long-lost sister, 
and lead her to the arms of her ancient parents, and restate 
in her hearing the eulogies of her husband, became a desire 
of unquenchable anxiety. What he had narrated to the bro- 
thers he had to repeat to the parents, till the good old people 
were overwhelmed with their emotions, and the vehement 
desire to see her face once more before they died ; and a 



S68 GWENLLIAN* 

promise that she should visit them, with her other sons, as 
soon as she could travel with safety through the country at 
present too much disturbed, was readily given by their son- 
in-law — unhappy man, little thinking how far beyond his 
power it was to fulfil his engagement. 

The forces required by Prince Griffith, whose anxiety to 
return to the South was daily urged by him, were carefully 
selected from the army of the Northen prince by the two 
brothers of Gwenllian, and were soon equipt and supplied 
with all necessaries, so that at length they were ready, fully 
prepared for the march. Thus Griffith was elated to the 
highest pitch of satisfaction as he reviewed them, and was 
about to take an affectionate farewell of the royal family, 
when the awful tidings of the tragic catastrophe in the South 
came, like a hurricane over a fair landscape, and dashed him 
and his hopes prostrate to the earth. 

The ancient sovereigns, lately so animated with the hope 
of once more beholding their child, received the fatal intelli- 
gence of her violent and cruel death, with that profundity of 
excessive grief, peculiar to advanced age, where more is felt 
than can be expressed; and in the deep silence of their 
stifled agony the escape at times of nature's heavy sob, and 
convulsion of the entire frame, indicated the vain attempt to 
yield at once the resignation which philosophy dic- 
tates and religion inculcates for woes so incurable. The 
two brothers, like Griffith himself, though struck with un- 
utterable dismay at what they heard, at first found it difficult 
to conceive the possibility of such an unprecedented outrage 
at the hands of men who arrogated to themselves a claim to 
superior civilization and refined humanity, beyond the pre- 
tensions of the British race, whom they affected to despise, 
for imputed barbarism: and it was only after putting re- 
peated and very searching questions to, and receiving mi- 
nutely circumstantial answers from the messengers, who 
were a portion of the fugitives that had escaped from the 
carnage of Kidwelley, that they were at length fully con- 
vinced of the dire fact. After yielding nature her enforced 
tribute of tearful tribulation and mental prostration, the two 
brothers were the first to rouse themselves from the stupor 



GWENLLIAN. 369 

of grief; when the natural transition from sorrow to rage 
took its course, and they spoke out their resolution of aiding 
her husband to avenge the cause of their murdered sister, 
by the most ample retribution on the entire race of Normans 
who occupied castles and domains in South Wales. 

Gwenllian had many sisters, who had always loved her 
with that intense affection for which the Celtic race had 
ever been distinguished in the ardour of their kindred love. 
These were all married to some of the principal chieftains, 
who formed the nobility of the country, and at this time 
middle aged mothers of grown up families. To make these 
acquainted with the family calamity was the first step deter- 
mined upon by Owen Gwynethand Cadwalader, who imme- 
diately sent forth their mounted messengers on the most 
rapid steeds, in all directions ; and in many instances became 
themselves the bearers of the deplorable tidings, accom- 
panied by the chief sufferer, their brother-in-law, the un- 
happy Prince Griffith. The result, as may be anticipated, 
was a general confederacy among these kindred to unite 
their forces with those of Owen Gwyneth and Prince 
Griffith, for the double purpose of extirpating the Norn ans 
from the soil of Wales, and dealing to them the most ample 
measures of retaliating vengeance. 

Having thus set fire to the far-extending train of com- 
bust io us materials of which the heads and hearts of their 
countrymen were so notoriously composed, the common 
feeling appeared less impelled by the spirit of a general 
revolt for the enfranchisement of their country from the 
dominion of oppressive foreigners than a national crusade of 
vengeance for the wrongs of Gwenllian. We can conceive 
her tale, the newest and most astounding wonder of the day, 
extending to the humblest hearths throughout the land, and 
becoming an all-absorbing theme of discussion ; and the 
most obscure members of her sex, the humble housewives 
of the mountain huts and cottages of the glens and dingles, 
making her cause, in a manner, their own, by encouraging 
with inflamed vehemence, their husbands, sons, and brothers, 
to take up arms in this great feud, and rush to join the 
national confederacy. Thus entire communities throughout 



370 GWENLLIAN. 

the length and breadth of the principalities of North and 
South Wales and Powjs, became agitated with the popular 
fervour ; and instead of hanging back, reluctant to engage 
in the cause and rendering personal service, as might be the 
case where the motives of a war appeared obscure, or in- 
teresting only to particular districts, all, all, were fired with 
enthusiastic fury against the atrocious perpetrators of their 
deeply-felt calamitous wrong, and national insult. 

As soon as Griffith ab Rees and his two brothers-in-law 
arrived in South Wales, several chieftains who sympathised 
in their family calamity and concurred in the revolt, joined 
them with their powers, and thus additionally reinforced, 
they at once commenced hostilities. To avoid the imputa- 
tion of exaggerating the wonderful amount of success which 
attended the arms of these avengers of Gweullian we shall 
transcribe the historian Warrington's account of these tran- 
sactions. Treating of the decapitation of the princess, he 
says : — ** an action so savage, without precedent, even in these 
times, called loudly for vengeance on the spirit of the injured 
princes."* — Meaning the two brothers of Gwenllian, Owen 
Gwyneth and Cadwalader. 

" In this state of things the province of Cardigan was 
furiously attacked by the two sons of the king of North 
Wales. Among a people whose manners seem to have been 
little refined by ideas of chivalry, we are surprised at the 
appearance of two men, whose personal qualities, and whose 
courteous and gentle demeanour, might have entitled them 
to dispute the palm with the accomplished knights of the 
feudal ages. These distinguished persons were the above- 
named sons of Griffith ab Kunnan. As soon as the princes 
arrived in South Wales, several of the chieftains joined the 
army : being thus reinforced, they took and destroyed the 
castles of Aberystwith, Dinerth, and Caerwedross, and two 

* Warrington derives his authority from what he has stated respecting the 
death of Gwenllian, and the retaliating vengeance which followed from Giral- 
dus Cambrensis's Itinerary— Lib I., Cap. IX., and also Dr. Powell's Notes on 
the said chapter. This circumstance clearly contradicts the assertion of 
Florentius, Monk of Westminster,- that Gwenllian, wife to Griffith ab Rees, 
by deceitful practices had been the cause of his death.— See Welsh Chron. 
p. 190. 



GWENLLIAN. 371 

other fortresses belonging to "Walter Aspec and Richard de 
la Mere ; making altogether five well garrisoned castles of 
immense strength and complete military appointments. 
Having finished the campaign so much to their glory, they 
returned into North Wales." 

The excessive spirit of resentment by which the Welsh 
were animated at this time maybe conceived from the follow- 
ing continuation of Warrington's remarks. "During the 
late expedition two English barons were slain. A little 
time after, in revenge, it is probable, of the late devastations, 
Ranulph, earl of Chester made an inroad into Wales, but 
being on a sudden intercepted by the Welsh, it was with 
difficulty that he himself, with Jive only of his soldiers were 
able to escape; the rest of his forces having been put to the 
sword. 

On the close of the year 1136, the young princes, Owen 
Gwyneth and Cadwalader came a second time into South 
"Wales, at the head of a formidable force, consisting of six 
thousand infantry, and two thousand horse, all of which were 
clad in armour and completely armed. The prosperous 
events of the late campaign, with the desire of revenge (for 
the murder of Gwenllian) having excited Griffith ab Rees, 
and several chieftains in South "Wales to join them, with 
considerable supplies, they subdued the whole country, as 
far as Cardigan,' expelling the foreigners, and replacing the 
native inhabitants. To repel this formidable insurrection, 
Ranulph, earl of Chester, again entered Wales, accom- 
panied with the united forces of the Normans, Flem- 
ings, and the English remaining in Wales, or in the 
marshes, under the conduct of several powerful barons, 
all of whom were determined by one great effort to 
recover the territories lately torn from them, or at least to 
preserve those parts which still remained. The courage of 
the Welsh had in various situations, been terrible to their 
enemies : on this occasion it seems to have been rained above 
the usual standard ; fired with resentment at the late out- 
rage (the decapitation of Gwenllian) and animated by the 
example of leaders whose talents rendered them so fit for 
command. The English, after a severe and bloody conflict, 
2 a 



372 GWENLLIAN. 

were defeated with the loss of three thousand men; and 
flying to their castles for safety, were so closely pursued, 
that many prisoners were taken, and great numbers drowned 
in the Teivy ; a bridge across that river immediately under 
the castle having been broken down over which they were 
obliged to pass. Never before had the English^ in the 
various attempts upon Wales received so terrible a blow ;* 
their army having been completely annihilated. Having 
finished another prosperous campaign, the two young princes 
returned into North Wales ; carrying with them, to grace 
their triumph, the horses and armour, and the rich spoils 
they had taken. 

These were the last battles in which the heroic Griffith 
ab Rees was engaged. In the year 1137> although a younger 
man than either of his brothers-in-law, Owen Gwyneth or 
Cadvvalader, he paid the debt of nature ; broken down by his 
immense labours in the numerous battles in which he had 
been engaged, while his health was undermined with grief 
for the death of his excellent wife and the faithful partner 
of his troubled life, as well as of his unhappy son. The 
death of this gallant prince became one of the most calami- 
tious visitations of these times. Warrington states, "the 
power of the confederacy (for the recovery of Cambrian 
independence) was much weakend by the death of Griffith 
the son of Rees ab Tudor ; who closing with his life a series 
of brilliant actions, reflected back the honours of a long line 
of illustrious ancestry." 

In the same year this valiant and lamented prince was 
followed to the grave by his aged and illustrious father-in- 
law, the venerable Griffith ab Kunnan, sovereign of North 
Wales. 

We shall conclude this memoir with another reference to 
the misrepresentation of a Monkish writer respecting the 
illustrious lady we have here commemorated. Florence of 

* Halle and other authors have stated that so thoroughly crushed and en- 
feebled by defeat after their long and hard fighting, were the English survivors 
of this battle that even the Welsh women took an immense number of them 
prisoners, and guarded them effectively as such, in the rear of their own fighting 
squadrons. 



GWENLLIAN. 373 

Worcester mentions that Griffith ab Rees died" in conse- 
quence of ** the deceitful practices of his wife." In that 
case Gwenllian must have been a very wonderful woman 
indeed : as her death took place two years before her lord's 
decease, her headless trunk must have risen from its resting 
place, to indulge itself in the unnamed " deceitful practices," 
which, according to this statement brought a husband whom 
she loved, honoured, obeyed, aided, and died for, to a pre- 
mature grave. But to reconcile contradictions and impos- 
sibilities like these form no portion of the functions of a 
monastic chronicler ; and rationality may yield what enter- 
tainment it pleases to such statements, except the inexcu- 
sable one of giving them the least credence or weight in 
forming its final conclusions.* 

* The principal incidents in the memoirs of Gwenllian which were not 
gleaned from the Welsh Chronicles, the Saxon Chronicles, Warrington's and 
Powell's Histories of Wales, and other authorities therein named, were derived 
from the " Manuscript Notes'' to Caradoc of Llancarvon's black letter history 
of Wales, referred to in the preface to this volume. 




J ! / 



GENEHAL NOTES TO GWENLLIAN, WIFE OF GEIFFITH AB BEES. 

In the coarse of this memoir we have treated of the restoration, by Griffith 
ab Eees, of the ancient Bardic Congress called the Eisteddvod ; an institution 
peculiarly national, and truly dear to the Cymry of olden times. Those who, 
like ourselves, desire the revival and perpetuation of these interesting literary 
and musical meetings, would do well to notice that this Eisteddvod, which took 
place in the year 1135, deviated much in the nature of its transactions from 
those of more ancient times — and also from those which subsequently occurred, 
during the sway of our later native princes. We would infer that in these 
deviations from each other consisted their usefulness and beauty. Although 
varying from each other from the difference in the business transacted, they 
were the more perfectly consistent with propriety, inasmuch that they severally 
reflected the peculiar tastes, feelings, and peculiarities of their respective epochs. 
Therefore I would argue that our modern Eisteddvodd, to emulate the ex- 
amples set by the patrons, members, and conductors of the ancient institutions, 
instead of servilely copying any particular Eisteddvod, in the mode of its cele- 
bration, or the subjects embraced, should imitate them only in doing all things 
in accordance with the spirit of the age in which they are introduced :— namely 
the enlightened period in which we now enjoy our existence. 
i Those persons who peer no deeper than the surface of these matters may 
S discover an anomaly in allowing any portion of the Eisteddvod compositions 
/' to be in the English language : but since English is the tongue which is spoken 
/ and understood by a large majority of the population of Wales, and those who 
speak, and understand, and prefer Welsh exclusively, are numerically but a 
very insignificant minority, common sense, common justice, and the spirit of 
the age demand that a considerable portion of the Eisteddvod entertainments 
>, should be in the English language. As the English-speaking people are those 
V who contribute the greater amount towards the expenses of these celebrations, 
k Mt constitutes a further claim ; and surely those who pay so handsomely, in the 
form of rewards to the various successful competitors, have a right to dictate 
the subjects of the compositions, whether essays, songs, or poems; and also to 
decide on the language in which they should be respectively composed. 
£ Those unreasonable, exclusive, and intemperate persons who manifest such 
/ repugnance to the dominant language of Great Britain, and insist on the pro- 
/ priety of every literary production competed for being only in the antiquated 
f language of the principality of Wales, deserve to be stigmatized as the bigots 
\ and fanatics of Welsh nationality ; who, like others of those narrow-minded 
i classes, if their whims, fads, and fancies are permitted to carry undue sway, 
\ are the very instruments who carry within themselves the destructive princi- 
ple that sooner or later will destroy (Eisteddvodically speaking) their faith, 
creed, and ultimately the Eisteddvod itself. 

" But why'' exclaim these pragmatic worthies (one of whom in a late letter 
published in the Star of Gwent Newspaper, signed John Jones, embracing 
these denounced views?) "why call it an Eistedvodd at all, if the English lan- 
guage is to form one of its features ? Eisteddvod is a Welsh word signifying a 
congress or meeting of bards and minstrels; and therefore the tongue of the 
Saxon should be entirely excluded from our ancient British bardic associations 
bearing this national designation." 



GENERAL NOTES TO GWENLLIAN. 375 

Our good, hot-headed friend, we have too great a sympathy with your malady 
to quarrel with you, but we will venture to answer your question as to the pro- 
priety of the Welsh term, Eisteddvod, being used to designate a meeting where 
English-speaking people take a share in its transactions. We admit, as you 
say, that such an assemblage signifies a meeting or congress of Welsh bards and 
minstrels ; but as before observed, as the greater number of the inhabitants of 
Wales have found it their interest to cultivate the dominant language of this 
island to the exclusion of that spoken by their forefathers in less civilized times, 
being now the only vocal intermedium in transacting their business with the 
world— and deeming perhaps that it is better to speak good English than bad 
Welsh (for sadly degenerated the Welsh of South Wales is admitted to be) ; we 
cannot admit that by their change of tongue they have forfeited one iota of 
their rights of citizenship, but, moreover, that as those who speak and compose 
their productions in English, write entirely on subjects connected with Welsh 
nationality — the bards and minstrels of the latter description being as true Cam- 
brian patriots as the former— have thoroughly as just a claim to be heard, 
encouraged, and rewarded, when successful, as any competitor who may be 
conversant only with the Welsh language, in the business anl under the cog- 
nomen of the Eisteddvodd. 

Happily the English writers of Wales, however opposed by the sticklers for 
the supremacy of the Welsh language, have met with due encouragement these 
many years past, and goodly fruit have they borne in the respective forms of 
learned and interesting essays, in which the long neglected antiquities of Wales 
have undergone the most profound researches and critical examinations ; while 
in the metrical department the poems and songs of the late Mrs. Ilemans, 
John Humphry Parry, and others, whose productions are entirely founded on 
the traditions and historic remains of Cambria, yield the fairest answers to all 
inquiries under those headings. And be it further observed, there is decidedly 
more Welsh nationality in an English production, when vigorously embracing 
a subject, historic or traditional, that is purely Cambrian, than in a composition 
in the Welsh language on affairs that are in no respect connected with Wales 
or Welshmen. Thus in> reality, such English writers, after all cavilling, are 
by far the best supporters of Welsh literature. 

Having referred to the elegant and spirited poems and songs of the renowned 
Felicia Hemans, on Cambrian subjects, as masterpieces of their kind, we take 
leave to observe, that among the best writings of Welshmen, in their own ver- 
nacular tongue, it is our firm belief that there exists not a single composition 
that, can bear comparison with that gifted lady's most descriptive poem entitled 
"the meeting op the bards." It was written expressly for the opening of 
an Eisteddvod; and appropriately affords an explanatory apology for the 
modern mode of holding such meetings within roofed edifices, as contra-distin- 
guished from the ancient manner of celebrating them in the open air, amidst 
the sublimities of nature. With various views we insert that poem for the ex- 
amination of our readers. 

THE MEETING OF THE BARDS. 
By Felicia Hemans. 
Where met the bards of old ? the glorious throng, 
They of the mountain and the battle song ? 
They met— Oh not in kingly hall or tower, 
But where wild nature girt herself with power ! 

2 h 2 



37& GENERAL NOTES TO GWENLLIAN. 

They met where streams flash'd bright from rocky caves; 

They met where woods- male moan o'er warrior's graves,. 

And where the torrent's rainbow-spray was cast, 

And where dark lakes were heaving to the blast, 

And midst th' eternal cliffs, whose strength defied 

The crested Roman in his hour of pride : 

And where the Carnedd, on its lonely hill, 

Bore silent record of the mighty still, 

And where the Druid's ancient Cromlech frown'd, 

And the Oaks breathed mysterious murmurs round, 

They throng'd, th' inspired of Yore ! on plain or heights,, 

" In the sun's face, beneath the eye of light I" 

And baring unto heaven each noble head 

Stood, in the circle where none else might tread. 

Well might their lays be lofty !— soaring thought, 

From Nature's presence tenfold grandeur caught ! 

"Well might bold Freedom's soul pervade their strains r 

Which startled eagles from their lone domains ! 

Whence came the echoes to those numbers high ? 

'Twas from the battle-fields of days gone by I 

And from the tombs of heroes gone to rest, 

With their good swords beneath the mountain's breast ;. 

And from the watch-towers on the heights of snow, 

Sever'd by cloud and storm from all below ; 

And the turf mounds, once girt with ruddy spears, 

And the rock altars of departed years ! 

Thence deeply mingled with the torrent's roar, 

The winds a thousand wild responses bore, 

And the green land, whose every vale and glen. 

Doth shrine the memory of heroic men, 

On all her hills, awakening to rejoice, 

Sent forth proud answers to her children's voice. 

For us— not ours the festival to hold, 

Midst the stone altars hallow'd thus of old; 

Not when great Nature's majesty and might 

First broke, all glorious, on our wondering sight, 

Not near the tombs where sleep our free and brave t 

Not by the mountain llyn, the ocean wave, 

In these late days we meet : — dark Mona's shore, 

Eryri's cliifs, resound with harps no more. 

But, as the stream — (though time or art may tura 

The current bursting from its cavern'd urn, 

To bathe soft vales of pastures and of flowers, 

From alpine glens and awful forest bowers,) 

Alike in rushing strength, or sunny sleep, 

Holds on its course to mingle with the deep : 

Thus, though our paths be chang'd, still warm and free, 

Land of the Bard ! our spirit flies to thee ; 

To thee our thoughts, our hopes, our hearts, belong. 

Our dreams are haunted by the voice of song I 



GENERAL NOTES TO GWENLLlAN. 377 

Nor yield oar souls one patriot feeling less 

To the green memory of thy loveliness, 

Than theirs, whose harp-notes peal'd on every height, 

In the sun's face, beneath the eye of light. 

It is with great pleasure we have noticed among the young Cambrians of our 
time a growing taste for oratorical declamation. It would be wise to encourag* 
this ; as nothing can more effectually tend to a graceful change from the awk- 
ward rustic demeanour and style in which many, young and old, of our Eistedd- 
vodd prize winners recite their performances or address their audience. Witfa 
6uch laudable views it would be well of the patrons of Eisteddvodau to offer 
cccasionally a fair prize for the best delivery from the platform, of Mrs Heman's 
foen* the " meeting of the babds," in the absence of an original compositioa- 



Hot) 



l "6 

iari 
ted. 



GWENLLIAN, 

DAUGHTER OF OWEN GLENDOWER. 

Gwenllian, natural daughter of Owen Glendower, as 
noticed elsewhere in this work became the wife of Philip ab 
Rhys, of Cenarth. The poet Lewis of Glyncothi wrote an 
affecting elegy on her death, in which after dwelling 
minutely on her personal charms he styles her " Gwenlliai 
of the golden lock," and " Gwenllian of the hue of drifted 
snow ;" and bears high testimony to her benevolent atten- 
tion to the wants of the poor. He feelingly refers to the 
past fortunes of her illustrious father ; — that he was 
once a powerful prince, with forty dukes for his allies, and 
the whole of Wales under his command. And that in his 
old age his benevolence was exemplified by the liberal sup- 
port he gave to sixty-two female pensioners. The bard 
next mentions Gwenllian's two sons, and again eulogises 
her liberality, and that of her generous husband. Recalling 
to mind the many kind friends he had lost — the departure 
of "the old familiar faces" — he thus emphatically closes. 

" Had I a tongue of steel, and lungs of brass, and were I 
able to lament them unceasingly, my eulogies would be too 
weak, too insufficient, for their great merits." 



;y 



GWENLLIAN, OF LLWYN TEEN. 

This excellent young lady was the daughter of a chieftaiaa 
named Rhys ab David ab Thomas, of the two mansions of 
Vlaen Tren, and Llwyn Tren, on the river Tren in Carmar- 
thenshire. Of the latter, and its hospitality the poet Lew is 
of Glyjicgm speaks in the most animated terms ; "an a in 
his poem addressed to its owner, the bard asks what land 
was there in Christendom which could boast of richer wine 
than what is drank at Llwyn Tren ? what country could 
boast of superior timber to that which grows on Rees ab 
David's land ? His extensive grounds, he says, abound like 
Windsor forest, in *oaks of the most luxuriant growth, as 
well as in other trees of every kind and magnitude. And 
to animate the scene, wild bees are found in swarms on his 
estate and are seen sipping many a flower. There also is 
seen the stately stag, in company with his comrades, — 
whilst the melodious blackbird is heard to commingle his 
notes with those of other songsters of the forest. The 
heron nestles there, and there it summers. And the timid 
squirrel, the beauty of the wood, gambols in safety there, 
and there it winters." 

The fairy of the scene, the beautiful enchantress of this 
earthly paradise was Gwenllian, who, it appears, was as 
good as she was beautiful, for she is greatly celebrated by 
this poet for the benevolence of her character. In another 
poem addressed to her father, he says, " as the oak stands 
foremost among the trees of the forest, so does Rhys among 
his neighbours. He is the generous one of the line of Mere- 
dith Vras.f May the blessed Mary protect both him and 
his family ; for when I was seized and laid up with a violent 
fever, and when shooting pains ran throughout all my bones, 

* The translation of the Eev. John Jones, vicar of Nevin, Pembrokeshire. 

+ The translation of this name gives it a comic tendency in English, which 
it does not bear in the original ; Meredydd Vras, signifies Meredith the fat, or 
the portly. 



380 GWENLLIAN. 

the kiadhearted Gwenllian, the daughter of Rhys, she who 
ever contributes to the relief of the hundred poor, supplied 
me with medicines, whose healing virtue restored me to my 
wonted health. There were no delicacies of the table with 
which I was not furnished, and I was moreover supplied 
with the very best mead * May my blessing ever attend 
her, and may my prayers in her behalf be heard ! I was on 
the brink of the graven but I am now restored to health and 
vigour." 

The generous Gwenllian, however, was not destined to 
continue her career of benevolence ; she was cut off like a 
frost-nipped flower, in early life ; and, as we are informed 
ky t ne same , p o et, on the eve of her marriage. He wrote a 
pathetic elegy on her death, with the following slight sketch 
of which, from Mr. Jones's translation, we shall conclude 
this brief memoir. 

" A star hath set— the beautiful Enidf of Blaen-Tren, the 
virgin daughter of Rees is no more ! her spirit hath flown 
to the happy regions above ; and at Llan, y Buthair J her 
corse hath been consigned to the grave. JJIow brittle is the 
thread of life — less lasting than the spray of the sea. Alas! 
that Gwenllian should have been cut off with the month of 
May. Like that month, pleasant and sweet was the life of 
Gwenllian. Would that her life had been prolonged ! but I 
am far advanced in the vale of years, and my muse gives 
utterance to nothing but woe, for the setting sun of Gilvach- 
Wen. Yesterday Gwenllian's voice was heard, but to day 
it is hushejp> She was amiable in her life, and accomplished 
withal ; and her hand was ever open to relieve the distressed. 
A branch of an ancient and noble stock hath been cut off. 
Ah ! how uncertain is life ! she was espoused, and on the 
eve of marriage ; but before the bridal day her spirit fled, 
and her body rested in the silent tomb." 

* Mead, or Metheglyn, was the wine of the ancient Welsh. It was made of 
malt, water, herbs, and spices, and fermented with barm. 

t Enid, to whom Gwenllian is compared, was one of the three exalted ladiei 
e( the court of King Arthur, according to the Welsh Triads. 

X In Welsh Llan y Byddair 



fifthui** 



\p 



THE LADY GWENLLIAN, 

DAUGHTER OF CUNNAN AB MEREDITH, AND WIFE OF SIB 
GRIFFITH LLWYD. 

Although Sir Griffith Llwyd, who in after years became 
the husband of tins lady, was a very noted character, for 
the parts which he enacted in the political drama of his 
time, we know but little of Gwenllian herself, except what 
we learn from a curious Welsh poem addressed to her by 
a rejected lover, previous to her union with that celebrated 
chieftain. The poem, the poet, and the lady, are thus re- 
ferred to by the late Dr. Owen Pughe, in a letter to 
Mr. Coxe, author of the Historical Tour in Monmouth- 
shire, and, with the original Welsh, inserted in that work. 

"There was a celebrated poet of Gwent, named Cas- 
nodyn, who flourished in the commencement of the four- 
teenth century, and whose works may be deemed the J§st 
of the ancient classics of Sujuria.* I have selected the 
following ode, chiefly for its brevity, and accompanied it 
with a literal translation ; it is addressed to a lady called 
Gwenllian, the meaning of which name is, one that is white \ 
; as the torrent's foam.\ \ 

" Transcendant in virtue, whose soft skin of gossamer 
I delicacy is of the hue of the purely white spraying foam of 
the waves ! Thy fame has been the subject of my lay, 
Gwenllian, sprightly and fair; a thousand more will sing 
in thy praise. 

* Casnodyn flourished from about 1290 to 1340. There are Ave pieces of his 
ipreserved in the Myvyrian Archaeology, which contain abundant proofs of 
ihis poetic genius. 1— The poem to Gwenllian, herein citsd. 2— Awdl i Ievan 
Abad Aberconwy. 3— Awdl i Ievan ab Gruffuth. 4— Awdl Marwnad Madawg. 
5— Awdl i'r Drindod." — Williams's Biographical Dictionary of Eminent 
Welshmen. 

t Most Welshmen will dissent from the doctor'3, opinion respecting the 
meaning of this name; "while as the ocean's foam" is merely a simile for a 
beautiful fair girl. For a brief dissertation on the meaning of " Gwenllian,'* 
see the memoir of Gwenllian, heiress of the vale of Clewyd, in this work. 



382 



THE LADY GWENLLIAN. 



*' Though I anxiously seek the object of my wish, not a 
glance of the angel-presence, high-towering in renown, shall 
I have in a day, nor in twelve ; my craving hope, like the 
gairish thistle-down, privileged with wings floats in an 
airy course of wide extended light. 

" Passion has been a sting wounding to punish weakness : 
a token without fulfilment, lightly passes away on the sleep- 
obstructing form, so sprightly, seeming as a white stream 
of the rock, when the impending surge throws a mantle 
over the stone. 

"Discreet of word and faultless! Oh! banish the wa- 
vering sentiment; I am ever without an assignation for the 
longed intercourse ; fine gold (alone) has been my recom- 
pence, for the pain, the torment of delay, which my hands 
received with diffident wistfulness, from a second Indeg.* 

" Beauteous daughter of Kunnan ! (Cynan) dispense the 
hundred gifts of the Eagle of the land of men — of heroes 
free from Saxon speech ! A prospering lord, like a liberal 
Grecian sage, eloquent and energetic — release from chains 
a comely chief! 

" I am master of the lucid words of the modest Gwyn- 
eddian language ;f I am competent to celebrate the pro- 
geny of a prince of bounteous gift ; far distant will fame be 
wafted by the power of words ; so unrestrained my muse 
[n Gwentian song. 

" The slender and elegant damsel, from whose lips the 
Welsh so purely flows ;\the kind sleep -depriving maid, 
causing health-depriving anaaish, a myriad will praise her 
without ceasing, in undebasea* words, soft and pure, which 
in recital shall greatly bless the course of life. 

il May then the panegyric lay make impression on her, 
who is of the hue of the hoarsely-clamouring wave of 

Lanaw, azure mantled and of sullen din, which often to 

* Indeg, the daughter of Avarwy, a celebrated beauty in the court of King 
Arthur, recorded in the Triads as one of the three chaste damsels of the Isle of 
Britain. 

f Gwyneddian, i. e. the language of North Wales ; this poet, being a native 
of Gwent, Monmouthshire, boasts an equal facility in composition in both 



THE LADY GWENLLIAN. 383 

where the bright green smiles, wafts me on a mighty course, \ 
gloomy and severe. Oi 

" Hastening to view Jtaw glorious the path of the lumi- V 
naryofArvon, causing anxieties to the mind ; the queen of 
the stone-built castle, the faivtfaped ample place of resort to / 
a splendid throne; theslgn^rNand gentle maid of Di- / 
norweg."* / 

However beautiful these strains of Casnodyn may have 
been to others, it appears they utterly failed to move the 
heart of Gwenllian. As before observed she was afterwards 
united in marriage to Griffith Llwyd, grandson of the re- 
nowned Ednyved Vychan, the counsellor and general of 
Prince Llewellyn ab Iorwerth, who, as the representative 
of that great family resided at the mansion of Tregarnedd, 
to which he brought home his bride, the beautiful Gwenllian, 
who was thenceforward to become its mistress. 

Of the lady we have no further notice in history ; but 
the career of her husband was singularly eventful. Living 
at the period of the subjugation of Wales hy Edward I., 
although the most ardent of patriots, he had the sagacity to 
perceive the futility of the unequal contest between the 
vast armies of the invader and the reduced number of his 
countrymen ; therefore, conceiving that the best mode of 
settling the peace of the country, and to restore security to 
the disturbed homes of all, would be to submit quietly to 
English dominion, he strenuously advised the Welsh to 
refrain for the future from unavailing opposition. As a 
proof of the integrity of his political views, he kept aloof and 
refrained from taking any part in the insurrection raised by 
his immediate neighbours, the men of North Wales, who 

* Such is the mere sense of this curious Welsh poem ; but the charm of the / 
composition is principally to be found in the felicitous turns of a very intricate ./I— 
measure, adorned both with rhyme and alliteration. The translator remarks 
on it: — " This ode is so extremely complicated and artful in its construction, 
that it would be a fruitless attempt, I believe, to imitate it in any other lan- 
guage. Every line ends in eg, but they are all unaccented syllables except four, « 
and consequlnTIyhave not the jingle of full rhyme ; they are also overpowered 
by the accented concatenation of other sounds (alliteration), in different parts 
of the verses, in such a manner that an incorrect ear might almost miss theh- 
existence in the composition. 

2 i 



384 THE LADY GWENLLIANa 

having set up Madoc, a natural son of the late Llewellyn ab 
Griffith, for their prince, made a daring attempt to recover 
their lost liberties. Their final battle was fought in 1294, 
on Mynydd Digoll,* in which, after a well-fought and long- 
contested engagement with the collected powers of the 
Lords Marchers, as foreseen by Griffith Llwyd, they were 
utterly overthrown and routed. 

As a further proof of his pacific disposition towards the 
English government, and the new order of things in Wales, 
he voluntarily undertook to be the bearer to King Edward 
of the intelligence that his queen had given birth to a son, 
in the castle of Carnarvon. For this service he received the 
honour of knighthood at the hand of the English sovereign ; 
the lordship of Powys was also bestowed on him, for which 
he did homage at Chester, in 1355, to Edward, prince of 
"Wales, by the title of lord of Poole; according to Pennant 
his title was also Frenchified into De la Pole. 

But Sir Griffith Llwyd, notwithstanding these rewards 
for his adherence to English politics, lived to repent his 
complaisance. The galling oppression endured by his 
countrymen, and the unbearable insolence of the English 
nobility and others in authority towards the most excellent 
and high-born of the land, at length drove the Welsh to 
desperation and resistance. Griffith Llwyd partaking of 
their indignant feelings and determination, to make amends 
for his former advice, now took measures for a revolt for the 
recovery of their ancient freedom. 

" Between the years 1316 and 1318 he attempted to form 
an alliance with Edward Bruce (brother of Robert Bruce of 
Scotland), the short-lived king of Ireland. Letters passed 
between them but without effect. At length, from the 
greatness of his spirit, he determined alone to endeavour to 
free his country from the slavery to which he himself had 
probably contributed."! 

* " The name of this place," says Pennant, " is taken from an immense 
Carnadd (in English Cam), or heap of stones, surrounded with great upright 
6tones, in an adjacent field. 

t Pennant. The following is that author's account of the fortification of the 
house of Sir Griffith Llwyd. " I find that he had fortified Tregarnedd with a 



THE LADY GWENLLIAN. 385 

In the year 1322 he took up arms, and headed the in- 
surrectionary powers of Wales. To mark the spirit of des- 
peration to which they were driven, he caused his banners 
to be inscribed with those burning words, which strikingly^ 
express the exasperated feelings of the times, Give U marw \ 
vel dyn na biw vel y ci, signifying, c< Better die like a man 
than live like a dog." 

For awhile success attended his arms wherever he moved ; 
but at length superior powers came against him, and ulti- 
mately he and his army were subdued and taken prisoners. 
Pennant suggests he "doubtlessly underwent the fate of 
our gallant insurgents ;" in which case he was either shot 
or beheaded. But other writers imagine that he was kept 
in captivity till his death, in the Tower of London. What 
became of the Lady Gwenllian and his family, is unknown, 
having found no record in history, except what is thus 
stated by Pennant from the Sebright MSS. " His daughter 
Morvydd, one of his co-heiresses, conveyed by marriage 
tbis estate (Tregarnedd)» being her portion, to Madoc 
Gloddaeth, which followed the succession of that House till 
1750, when it was alienated by the late Sir Thomas Mostyn 
to Mr. Owen Williams." 

very strong foss and rampart, and made another stronghold about three quarters 
of a mile distant, in the morass of Malltraeth called Ynis Cevenni, which he 
insulated with the waters of the river Cevni •. both are still remaining. The 
foss is nearly perfect, and near four yards deep and eight wide. 



nio 



GWERVIL HAEL OP ABERTANED. 

Gwervil Hael (Gwervil the Generous), was a lady of rank 
in the fourteenth century. In the olden times of good house- 
keeping she became the model of a great patroness to the 
fame-bestowing minstrels of her day, and obtained from the 
gratitude and general suffrage of the bards the above flat- 
tering title. She was the daughter of Madoc of Abertaned ; 
and the wife of Rhys ab David ab Howel, by whom she be- 
came the mother of several children, who ultimately »were 
allied to some of the most respectable Houses in the prin- 
cipality, and the founders of great families. Among those 
alliances may be named the Salusburys of Reeg (Rug) and 
Llewenny ; Pugh of Mathavarn, in Montgomeryshire ; Pryse 
Pryse, of Gogerddan, in the county of Cardigan ; and ulti- 
mately of Sir Watkin William Wynne, of Wynnstay.* 
Reeg (Rug) and its dependencies was devised by will to 
Colonel Salusbury of the Guards; and he dying unmarried 
in Sicily, during the late continental war, bequeathed the 
whole to his younger brother, Griffith Howel Vaughan, Esq., 
the present highly respectable and hospitable proprietor, f 
Gwervil Hael's descendants by her second husband were 
equally illustrious, and are traceable to our present time. 
They were the Tanats of Abertanat.J The Godolphins 
came into possession by marriage ; and a Lord Godolphin 
devised the whole estate to Lord Osborne, in which family 
it still continues. To this branch of the descendants of 
Gwervil Hael may be added Mrs. Ormsby Gore, of Por- 
kington, near Oswestry. 

* The residence of Gwervil Hael was Llanyblodwell Hall, Montgomeryshire, 
North Wales, near the mansion of Sir Watkin William Wynne. 

+ Vide notes to the poems of Lewis Glyncothi, edited by the Rev. John 
Jones, vicar of Nevyn. 

t The Tanats of Abertanad took their name from the river Tan ad, which 
runs through their original estate, and falls into the Vyrnyw, near their seat of 
Abertaned. 



GWERVIL HAEL OF ABERTANED. 387 

Having said thus much of her descendants, we now return 
again to the fountain of their honours, the liberal Gwervil 
Hael. Brief, however, are our remaining records. She 
became the enviable subject of the poetic eulogies of the 
bard Lewis of Glyncothi. At her decease he wrote on her 
a fine elegy, in which he describes the general lamentation, 
that followed the mournful event, not only among the 
minstrels, but also throughout the country generally. In 
the fervour of his admiration he declares, that such was 
the excellence of her high character that she was deserving 
of being canonized, and of pious pilgrimages being made 
to the hallowed spot that enshrined her remains. 

In the song entitled •• The Ladies of Cymru," this 
"fair daughter of Madoc of Abertaned, the light and 
glory of the festal hall," is thus apostrophized : — 
" To Gwervil the gen'rous what bard can refrain 
From channting dear Gratitude's warm-hearted strain ? 
Blest bountiful beauty, the foundress of feasts, 
The darling of chieftains, bards, minstrels, and priests," 



2 i 2 



GWERTIL, 

WIFE OF DAVID LLOYD AB LLEWELLYN LORD OF MATHAVARN. 

The husband of this lady, David Lloyd ab Llewelyn, was a 
man of no inconsiderable note in his time, both for the gifts 
of fortune, and the supposed possession of an enlightened 
mind. He is reputed to have been a poet, herald, antiquary, 
and Brudiwr, or prophet, of no mean attainments. His resi- 
dence was on his own property, a good house at Mathavarn, 
in the parish of Llanwrin, Cyveiliog, Montgomeryshire ; and 
his fair estate extending along both sides of the river Dyvi, 
or Dovey ; consisting of hill and vale, pasture and cornfields, 
wood and turbary, as well as a certain quantum of mountain- 
sheep-walks, where he could breed and feed both his wool 
and his mutton. 

Davydd seems to have caught the fire, or rather the smoke 
of his genius, from some of the fatidical seers, who emu- 
lated in a small way and at a great distance, the pyihonic 
darkness which sublimate the inexplicable prophesies of 
Merddyn Wyllt ; one of our Cambrian ancients who has 
thriven on his obscurities, and had the rare fortune to be 
admired most when least understood. Consequently, he 
became the oracle of that part of the country, where he 
dwelt ; and if his enigmatical promulgations failed to en- 
lighten his occasional auditors, they offended none, for the 
very convincing reason that few ever pretended to under- 
stand them. His own interpretations therefore became 
doubly acceptable; as no person could be found infidel 
enough to dispute with a prophet the meaning of his own 
prophesies. 

But among David Lloyd ab Llewelyn's felicitous posses- 
sions, we have purposely omitted the chief — with the view 
of producing it effectively, in all its unique superiority, and 
unalloyed with baser matter — he had a wife; — a shrewd, 
clever, little wide-awake, sensible wife, of the pretty name 



gwervil. 389 

of Gwervil. Alas for the paucity of detail with the chroni- 
clers of old ! They very carefully"announce in their annals 
some incidents which tend to make us blush for the barbari- 
ties of our forefathers ; but rarely enliven their pages with 
the sayings and doings of the clever women of their day, 
or doubtless our volumes of female biography would be 
more extensive. We grieve to say, there is but one little 
record of the imputed brilliance of Gwervil, the wife of 
David Lloyd ab Llewelyn, but on the strength of that 
solitary passage in her life, history has given a niche for her 
statue : — on the evidence of that lonely instance of her wit 
and waggery, the readiness of which suggests such habitual 
occurrences, we must give her credit for many unpro- 
duceable good sayings and doings. 

When the aspiring '.' Harry of Richmond," the gallant 
grandson of Owen Tudor, was on his way from Milford 
towards Shrewsbury and onwards, to fight the battle of Bos- 
worth Field, and stake his life to win the royal crown of these 
realms, he felt an inclination to call at the goodly mansion 
of Mathavarn, and become for a night the guest of one whom 
he was well assured was not only a faithful, but a most 
active and industrious partizan. The industry of David 
Lloyd ab Llewelyn consisted in the fecundity and fervour 
of his prophesies, which latterly had been less oracular, or 
mystic than usual, and foretold that a grand crisis was at 
hami, when the result of a battle between a dragon and a 
wild boar, would place the crown of this island once more 
upon the head of a Briton. If some were simple enough to 
understand this literally, and to expect merely the ex- 
citing entertainment produceable by a bona fide battle 
between two strange animals, like the legendary fight of the 
lion and the unicorn, of later coinage, others were not 
wanting in the necessary sagacity to the internal meaning 
of that oracular announcement. It has been said although 
the pretended prophesies of David Lloyd ab Llewelyn were 
subjected to the ridicule of the shrewder portion of his 
countrymen, yet that his dark, mysterious, but bold pro- 
phesies that a chieftain of Wales, of the British blood royal, 
should liberate the nation from Saxon bondage, so wrought 



390 GWERVIL. 

upon the valour and excited imagination of his countrymen, 
that thousands of Welshmen enlisted under the banners of 
Rhys ab Thomas, who received the Earl of Richmond at 
Milford. Therefore, to countenance so useful an instru- 
ment of his ambition, was no contemptible piece of policy 
in the " Briton Richmond ;" living as he did, in an age 
when witchcraft was a burnable offence, and when lords and 
ladies of the highest rank were not too wise to avoid con- 
sulting " cunQing men" and " prophetic women ;" who in 
reality were not beyond the par of our modern fortune 
tellers. 

After some hours spent in rest and refreshment at the 
house of David Lloyd, whom the Earl is said to have 
known familiarly in his childhood, previous to his retirement 
for the night, he asked his host, either in real anxiety for 
the issue of his enterprize, or in a spirit of jocular gaiety, 
his real opinion, whether success or failure would attend his 
banners. Taken by surprise the seer cautiously replied, 
that a question of such importance required due con- 
sideration, and that he should give his answer in the mor- 
ning. When asked by his wife the cause of his apparent 
perplexity, he informed her of Richmond's demand, and his 
own hesitation in making an immediate reply. " How can 
you possibly find a difficulty about your answer said Gwer- 
vil ; " tell him, without hesitation, that his daring enterprize 
will be most successful and glorious ; if your prediction is 
verified, you will receive honors and rewards ; but if it fails, 
and Richmond falls, depend upon it he will never come here 
to reproach you. 

This saying gave rise to the saying Cynghor Gwraig heh 
ei ofyn ; implying a wife's unasked advice is always for- 
tunate. 

Among the diarhebion or Proverbs of Catwg there is one 
especially applicable to our witty, heroine, which runs 
thus — 

" Were a woman as quick on her feet as she is with her 
tongue, doubtless she would catch the lightning." 



w 



MISTRESS ELEANOR GWYNN, 

GENERALLY KNOWN AS " NELL GWYNN," MISTRESS OF KING 
CHARLES THE SECOND, AND MOTHER OF CHARLES BEAU= 
CLERC, THE FIRST DUKE OF ST. ALBANS, 

ABBIDGED FROM MRS. JAMESON'S "BEAUTIES OF THE COURT OF' KING 
CHARLES THE SECOND." 

As the authoress of the splendid and costly work from 
which we derive the memoirs of Nell Gwynn has not been 
so absurdly fastidious as either to exclude her from, or to 
make ridiculous apologies for, her introduction into M The 
Beauties of the Court of Charles the Second," we are 
happy to follow so fair an example. Trusting that the 
charm of contrast which she yields to our other " Heroines," 
will make this added feature of variety acceptable to our 
fair readers, we purpose that Mrs. Jameson shall tell her 
part alone, and the tale of this lowly Welsh beauty at the 
voluptuous court of the * c merrie monarch." 

" It is at least, in one sense, rather a delicate point to 
touch on the life of Nell Gwynn : one would fain be pro- 
perly shocked, decorously grave, and becomingly moral; 
but as the lady says in Comus, " but to what end '?" It 
were rather_ superflu ous to jset_ about proving that Nell 
Gwynn was, in her day, a good-for-nothing sort of person ; 
in short, as wild a piece of frailty as ever wore a petticoat. 
In spite of such demonstrations, and Bishop Burnet's 
objurgations to boot, she will not the less continue to be 
the idol of popular tradition ; her very name indicative of 
a smile, and of power to disarm the austerity of virtue, and 
discountenance the gravity of wisdom. It is worth while 
to enquire in what consists that strange fascination, which, 
after the lapse of a century and a^ili^stilFhangs round 
the memory of this singular woman. Why is her name 
still familiar and dea r in the mouths of the people ? Why 
hath no man condemned her ? Why has satire spared her f 



*- 



392 MISTRESS ELEANOR GWYNN. 

Why is there in her remembrance a charm so far beyond, 
and so different from, mere celebrity ? Other women have 
become famous and interesting in spite of their lapses from 
virtue, and some from that very cause. Rosamond Clifford 
is the heroine of romance ; Agnes Sorrel, of history and 
chivalry ; Jane Shore, of tragedy ; La Valliere, of senti- 
ment and poetry; and Gabrielle d" Estrees has been im- 
mortalized by the love of a hero, to whom she was most 
faithless, and of whom she was not worthy. But Nell 
Gwynn — heaven knows had little to do with romance, or 
tragedy, or chivalry, or sentiment: and her connexion 
with the king, with all the scandal it gave rise to, would 
have made her, in other cases, a mark for popular hatred 
and scurrility, but for those redeeming qualities which 
" turned dispraise to praise," and made 

" Beth faults and graces loved of more or less." 

A sprinkling of hypocrisy, or a few cooling drops of dis- 
cretion, had rendered Nell Gwynn either far better or far 
worse, and placed her on a par with the women around her ; 
as it was, she resembled nothing but herself. She may, 
perhaps, be compared in some few points with her fair and 
famed c ontemp orary, Ninon de 1' Enclos. Both had talents, 
wit, vivacity, and much goodness of heart ; both were dis- 
tinguished for the sincerity and permanency of their friend- 
ships, their extensive charity, and rnjiriificjejicje Jto literary 
men ; what Ninon was to Racine and Moliere, Nell was to 
Dryden and Lee. But there is this difference, that Ninon, 
with all her advantages of birth, talents, independent 
fortune, and education, not only soigne^ but learned, became 
from choice or perverted principle, what Nell, noorijunf 
educated, and unprotected, became from necessity or 
accident. 

The family of Nell Gwynn was of Wel^je^tra^tionxas 
may be inferred from the name ; her parents were natives 
of Hereford, of which city one of her noble descendants 
was afterwards bishop ,* and where, according to a Tocat 

* This " descendant" was her grandson, Lord James Beauclerc, who died 
bishop of Hereford in 1782 r 



MISTRESS ELEANOR GWYnN. 303 

tradition, she was herself born.* While yet a mere child, 
she was an attendant in a tavern, where the sweetness of 
her voice analieinspTigKtly address recommended her to 
notice. She was aifceimrds, still in extreme youth, servant 
to a fruiterer, and in this capacity employed to sell oranges 
at the theatres. Here herijeauty and vivacity aFtracted the 
notice of Lacy the comedian, her first lover, who was soon 
rivalled in her good graces by Hart, the handsomest man 
and the most accomplished actor of his day. Under the 
successive tuition of these two admirers, both of whom 
were masters of their art, Nell Gwynn was prepared for 
the stage, for which she had a natural penchant ; and, in 
1667, we find her enrolled in the king's company of 
comedians, who were then acting, under Killigrew's patent, 
at the new theatre in Drury-lane. Before the Restoration 
no woman had appeared upon the English stage, the female 
parts being all acted by men. The novelty and attraction 
of seeing beautiful women in such characters as Desdemona, 
Ophelia, Aspasia, &c, was, undoubtedly, one cause of that 
mania for theatrical amusements which was one of the 
characteristics of the time. Nell Gwynn at once became 
popular in her new vocation. She was so great a favourite, 
that the public endured and even applauded her, in charac- 
ters for which her talents were altogether unfitted. She 
excelled in comedy, and in all parts in which singing and 
dancing were requisite. The character of Florimal, in the 
*' Maiden Queen," appears to have been her chefcPcsuvre 
in this style.f Her easy gracefulness of address, arch 
expression, and musical voice, rendered her unrivalled as a 
speaker of prologues and epilogues ; several of Dryden's 

* According to Brailley and Britton's history of Hereford, Nell Gwynn was 
born in a humble dwelling in Pipe-lane, in the city of Hereford. Those county 
historians " state that her grandson, the bishop, became the proprietor of that 
very episcopal palace which almost adjoined the humble cot where hia maternal 
ancestor~drew~her first breath. XJT J'"" 

t Nell Gwynn appears to have excelled in precisely the same line of charac- 
ters which, in our day, marked the peculiar forte of that fascinating actress 
Madame Vestris, in the early part of her theatrical career ; while in the 
symmetry of form, petite foot and figure attributed to Nell, the resemblance 
appears also to hold good. 



394 MISTRESS ELEANOR GWYNN. 

best, and it is well known he excelled in these productions, 
were written expressly for her. The same year that Nell 
Gwynn first appeared on the stage, she attracted the 
notice of the witty Lord Buckhurst (afterwards the Earl 
of Dorset), who took her from the theatre and allowed her 
1001 a year. The absence, however, was not long : she 
returned to the stage in 1668, and appeared in her great 
character of Almahide, in Dryden* s Conquest of Granada. 
In spite of what Pepys says of her acting serious parts 
vilely (which was true in general), she produced a great 
effect in this character, as is evident from the extraordinary 
success of the play, and the allusion to her, long afterwards, 
by Lord Lansdown. in his " Progress of Beauty :" — 
" And Almahide, once by kings adored." 

The prologue to this tragedy was written for her by 
Dryden. It seems that Nokes, the favourite buffoon of the 
rival theatre (the Duke's House), had lately drawn crowds 
by appearing in a huge broad brimmed hat, though where 
the jest lay it is impossible to guess. Dryden ridiculed 
this extravagance, by causing Nell to appear in a hat 
double the size, with brims as wide as a cart wheel ; her 
slight short figure, just visible under this vast overhanging 
circumference, and the archness with which she delivered 
the satirical address, were irresistibly droll, and produced 
all the effect expected ; and much more, if the tradition be 
true, that it was in this grotesque costume Nell first cap- 
tivated her royal lover: but there is reason to doubt it. 
All that can be ascertained is, that from this time the 
king more openly distinguished her, and after the first 
performance, went behind the scenes and took her away 
in his carriage to sup with him. Soon after Lord Buck- 
hurst resigned her, for the consideration of an earldom and 
a pension. 

After this elevation (as the contemporary writers express 
it, and no doubt very sincerely thought it), we find Nelly 
dignified in the playbills with the title of " Madame Ellen," 
by which name she was popularly known. She appeared 
on the stage once or twice after the birth of her eldest son, 



NELL GWYNN. 395 

but retired from it altogether in 1671. About this time she 
was created one of the ladies of the queen's privy chamber, 
under which title she was lodged in "Whitehall.* Madame 
Ellen lost none of her popularity by her " elevation." She 
carried with her into the court the careless assurance of her 
stage manners : and, as Burnet says, "continued to hang on 
her clothes with the same slovenly negligence;" but she 
likewise carried there qualities even more rare in a court 
than coarse manners and negligent attire : the same frolic 
gaiety, the same ingenuous nature, and the same kind and 
cordial benevolence, which had rendered her adored among 
her comrades. Her wit was as natural and as peculiar to 
herself as the perfume to the flower. She seems to have 
been, as the Duchess de Chaulnes expressed it, "femme d? 
esprit, par la grace de Dieu :" her bon mots fell from her 
lips with such an unpremeditated felicity of expression, and 
her turn of humour was so perfectly original, that though 
it occasionally verged upon extravagance and vulgarity, 
even her maddest flights became her; "as if," says one of 
her contemporaries, " she alone had the pateatfrom Heaven 
to engross all hearts." Burnet calls he^^the wildest andPl 
indiscreetest creature that ever was in a court ;V-aTrt|-* / 
speaking of the king's constant attachment to her, he adds, 
M but, after all, he never treated her with the decencies of a 
mistress." This last observation of the good bishop is 
certainly "twisted into a phrase of some obscurity :" the 
truth is, that Nell had a natural turn for goodness, which 
survived all her excesses : she was wild and extravagant, 
but not rapacious or selfish — frail, not vicious ; she never 
meddled with politics, nor made herself the tool of ambitious 
courtiers. At the time that the king's mistresses were 
everywhere execrated for their avarice/'and arrogance, it 
was remarked that Nell Gwynn never asked anything for 
herself, never gave herself unbecoming airs^if'she deemed 
her unhappy situation a subject of pride ; there is not a 



* Mrs. Jameson remarks, " This was too disgraceful, but the disgrace rests 
with Charles who offered, and the queen who endured the outrage, rather than 
upon poor Nell, who certainly never sought the dignity." 
2 K 



396 NELL GWYNN. 

single instance of her using her influence over Charles for* 
any unworthy purpose ; but, on the contrary, the presents 
which the king's love or bounty lavished upon her, she gave 
and spent freely ; and misfortune, deserved or undeserved^ 
never approached her in vain. Once as she was driving up 
Ludgate-hill, she saw a poor clergyman in the hands of the 
sheriffs officers, and struck with compassion, she alighted 
from her carriage, inquired into the circumstances of his 
arrest, and paid his debt on the spot ; and finding on ap- 
plication to the vouchers he had named, that his character 
was as unexceptionable as his misfortunes were real, she 
generously befriended him and his family. The plan of 
that fine institution, Chelsea Hospital, would probably never 
have been completed, at least in the reign of Charles, but 
for the persevering and benevolent enthusiasm of this woman, 
who never let the king rest till it was carried into execution. 

These, and many other instances of her kind nature en- 
deared her to the populace. On one occasion, a superb 
service of plate, which had been ordered for the duchess of 
Portsmouth, was exhibited in a shop of a certain goldsmith, 
and the common people crowded round the window to gaze. 
On learning for whom it was intended, they broke out into 
execrations and abuse, wishing the silver melted and poured 
down her throat, and loudly exclaiming, that " it had been 
much better bestowed on madam Ellen." 

Strange as it may seem, Nell piqued herself upon her 
orthodox principles and her reverence for the clergy,* partly 
from a sincere religious feeling which had been early and 
unaccountably impressed on her mind, and never left her ; 
and partly perhaps, out of opposition to the papist favourite, 
the duchess of Portsmouth. Madame de Sevigne gives in 
one of her letters so piquant a description of Nell Gwynn 
and her merry impertinence to her rival, that instead of 
referring to the volume, I give the passage at length. 

"Keronalle, !, (the duchess of Portsmouth) "n'aete trompee 

* When Charles II. lodged at the house of Bishop Kenn at Winchester, the 
prelate refused to admit Nell Gwynn. The king put himself into a passion, 
i>ut Nell defended the bishop and observed that he only did his duty, and re- 
tired voluntarily to another lodging. 



NELL GWYNN. 397 

Sur rien. Elle avoit en vie d'etre la maitresse duroi; elle 

Test Elle a un fils qui vient d'etre reconnu, et a. qui on 

a donne deux duches. Elle amasse des tresors et se fait 
aimer et respecter de qui elle pent ; mais elle n'avoit pai 
preVu trouver en chemin, une jeune comedienne, dont le roi 
est ensercele. Elle n'a pas le pouvoir de Ten detacher un 
moment. La comedienne est anssi fiere que la Duchesse de 
Portsmouth : elle la morgue, lui derobe souvent le roi, et se 
vante de ses preferences. Elle est jeune, folle, hardie, 
debauchee, et plaisante : elle chante, elle danse, et fait son 
metier de bonne foi : elle a-un fils ; elle vent qu'il soit reconnu. 
Voici son raisonnement ; Cette demoiselle', dit- elle 'fait la 
personne dequalite. Elle dit, que tout est son parent en 
France. Des qu'il meurt quelque grand, elle prend le 
deuil. He bien ! puisqu' elle est de si grande qualite, pour- 

quoi s'est elle fait e ? Elle devroit mourir de honte. 

Pour moi, c'est mon metier; je ne me pique pas d'autre 
chose. Le roi m'entretiente je ne suis qu'a lui presentment. 
J' en ai un fils, je pretends qu'il doit etre reconnu; et il le 
reconnoitra, car il m'aime autant que sa Portsmouth. " Cette 
creature," continues Madame de Sevigne, " tiente le haut du 
pave, et decontenance et embarrasse extraordinairement la 
Duchesse." 

Besides her apartment in Whitehall, in quality of lady 
of the queen's privy chamber, Nell Gwynn had lodgings in 
Pall Mall,* where she frequently entertained the king and 
a few of his chosen companions with petits soupers and select 
concerts. On one of these occasions, she had collected 
together some new and excellent performers, and the king 
was so much enchanted, that he expressed his approbation 
in strong terms. "Then sir," said Nell, holding out her 
hand, " to show that you do not speak merely as a courtier, 
let me have the pleasure of presenting these poor people 
with a gratuity from your majesty!" The king, feeling in 
his pocket, declared he had no money, and turning to the 
duke of York, asked him if he had any money ? The duke 

• At the left hand corner of St. James's Square : the walls of the back room 
on the ground floor were (within memory) entirely of looking glass, as was 
&sML to have been the ceiling.— Pennant 's London, p. 90, 



398 NELL GWYNN. 

replied, " no sir, I believe, not above a guinea or two.'* Nell, 
shaking her head with her petit air malin, and drolly mimick- 
ing the king's tone and habitual expression exclaimed "odds 
fish, what company have I got into here !" 

Cibber who relates the anecdote, and lived about the same 
time, tells us that Nell was never known to be unfaithful to 
the king, from the moment he first noticed her, and that 
she was " as much distinguished for her personal attachment 
to him, as her rivals were by, their titles and grandeur.'' 
Her disinterested affection, her sprightly humour, her inex- 
haustible powers of entertainment, and constant desire to 
please, must have formed an agreeable contrast to the rapa- 
city, ill temper, affectation, and arrogant caprices of the 
other court ladies. Charles in spite of every attempt made 
to detach him from her, loved her to the last, and his last 
thought was for her : — " Let not poor Nelly starve !" was 
his appeal to his brother and successor James. Burnet, 
who records this dying speech, is piously scandalized that 
the king should have thought " of such a creature/' in such 
a moment ; but some will consider it with more mercy, as 
one among the few traits which redeem the sensual and 
worthless Charles from utter contempt. 

After the king's death Nell Gwynn continued to reside 
in Pall Mall, where she lived on a .small pension and some 
presents the king had made her. She survived him above 
seven years, conducting herself with the strictest decorum, 
and spending her time in devotion, and her small allowance 
in acts of beneficence: — she died in 1691. Dr. Tennison P 
then vicar of St. Martin's, and afterwards archbishop of 
Canterbury, preached her funeral sermon, in which he en- 
larged upon her benevolent qualities, her sincere repentance, 
and exemplary end. When this was afterwards mentioned 
to Queen Mary, in the hope that it would injure him in her 
estimation, and be a bar to his preferment, " and what then ?'' 
answered she hastily ; " I have heard as much : it is a sign 
that the poor unfortunate woman died penitent ; for if I 
can read a man's heart through his looks, had she not made 
a pious and christian end, the doctor could never have been 
induced to speak well of her." 



NELL GWYNN. 399 

Nell Xjrwynn was possessed of little at her death, and that 
little was by her will distributed in charity. She left, among 
other bequests, a small sum yearly, to the ringers of the 
church of St. Martin, where she was buried, which donation 
they still enjoy. 

She bore the king two sons, Charles and James Beauclerk. 
Charles, her eldest son, was born in Lincoln's Inn Fields,* 
in 1670, a short time before his mother quitted the stage. 
Her youngest son, James, died in his childhood at Paris. 
The occasion of the eldest brother being titled and acknow- 
ledged, is too characteristic to be omitted. When the 
children of the duchesses of Cleveland and Portsmouth had 
been dignified with titles, orders, and offices, Nell Gwynn 
naturally felt piqued that her sons, whose filial claims upon 
his majesty, as the fountain of honour, were at leasts as well 
founded, should be passed over, and she took her own whim- 
sical method of hinting her wishes to the king. One day 
when his majesty was present, and her eldest son was play- 
ing in the room, she called to him aloud, in a petulant tone, 
" come here you little bastard !" The king, much shocked, 
reproved her ; she replied meekly, and with the most demure 
simplicity, that tf indeed she was sorry, but had no better 
name to give him, poor boy !" A few days afterwards, this 
nameless young gentleman was created baron of Hedding- 
ton and earl of Burford, and in 1683, duke of St. Albany 
registrar of the high court of chancery, and grand falconer 
of England. He inherited his mother's personal beauty, 
and served with great bravery under King William Ill.f 

* In our memoir of the Lady Nest, daughter of Prince Rhys ab Tewdwr and 
mistress of Henry I., we have noticed some coincidences of character between 
that libertine monarch and Charles II. Since writing that article and on 
transcribing the present one, it has become evident to us that Charles doubtless 
made Henry Beauclerc his model, his beau ideal of a kingly profligate, a royal 
man of pleasure. Hence, it would seem, his choice of the name of Beauclerc 
for hia children by Nell Gwynn. 

+ This first duke of St. Albans married Lady Diana Vere, sole daughter of 
Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last earl of Oxford, and the greatest heiress in 
rank and descent in the three kingdoms. She was very young at the period of 
her marriage, and as amiable and innocent as lovely. She became the mother 
of eight sons, of whom Lord Vere Beauclerc (ancestor of the present duke), waa 
2 k 2 



400 NELL GWVNN. 

The secret of Nell Gwynn's popularity seemed to have 
consisted in what is usually called heart, in a kindness and 
candour of disposition, which the errors and abject miseries 
of her youth could not harden, nor her acquaintance with a 
corrupt court entirely vitiate. A woman when she has once 
stepped astray seldom pauses in her downward career, till 
" guilt grows fate, that was but choice before," and far more 
seldom rises out of that debasement of person and mind, 
except by some violent transition of feeling, some revulsion 
of passion leading to the opposite extreme. In the case of 
Nell Gwynn, the contrary was remarkable. As years 
passed on, as habit grew, and temptation and opportunity 
increased, her conduct became more circumspect, and her 
character more elevated. The course of her life which had 
begun in the puddle and sink of obscurity and profligacy, 
as it flowed, refined. For the humorous and scandalous 
stories of which she is the subject, some excuse may be 
found in her plebeian education, and the coarseness of the 
age in which she lived : when ladies of quality gambled and 
swore, what could be expected from the orange girl ? But 
though her language and manners bore to the last the taint 
of the tavern and the stage, hers was one of those fine 
natures which could not be corrupted ; the contaminating 
influence of the atmosphere around her had stained the sur- 
face but never reached the core. 

On comparing and combining the scattered traits and 
personal allusions found in contemporary writers, it appears 
that she was inperso n considerably below Jhe middle size, 
but formed with perfect elegance ; the contour of her face 
wassTOuod, her features delicate, her e^yes bright and intel- 
ligent, but so small as to be almost concealed when she 
laughed. Her cheek was usually dimpled with smiles, and 
her countenance radiant with hilarity; but when at rest it 
was soft, and even pensive in its expression ; her voice was 
sweet and well modulated ; her hair glossy, abundant, and 

distinguished as a naval commander ; and Lord Sidney Beauclerc was the 
father of that Topparn Beauclei-c, who was the friend of Dr. Johnson, and one 
of the worthies of Boswell. The present duke of St. Albans is the fifth from 
Nell Gwynn. 



NELL GWYNN. 401 

of a light auburn ; her hands were singularly small and 
beautiful, and her pretty foot so very diminutive, as to 
afford occasion for mirth as well as admiration. 

Such is Mrs. Jameson's excellent biography of Nell 
Gwynn, from which we also gather the following account of 
her picture. The engraved portrait in the beauties of the 
court of King Charles II., is after a picture by Sir Peter 
Lely, in the possession of General Grosvenor ; it agrees per- 
fectly with the foregoing description, and there can exist no 
doubt of its authenticity. The dress is certainly in the ex- 
treme of that negligence for which the lady was remarkable : 

" Kobes loosely flowing — hair as free." 
Her left hand rests upon a lamb, which she crowns with 
flowers. The turn of the neck and the hair of the head are 
full of grace and character ; and the whole picture, although 
a little injured by time, is exquisitely painted. 

From the preface to Mrs. Jameson's work we learn the 
following curious particulars respecting the picture of Nell 
Gwynn. When Mr. Murphy (father of Mrs. Jameson), 
had the honour of submitting the first eight portraits to the 
late Queen Charlotte, he took the liberty of asking her 
majesty whether she recollected a famous picture of Nell 
Gwynn, known to have once existed in the Windsor gallery. 
(It should be observed that her majesty was suspected of 
having, from peculiar notions of propriety, removed this 
picture.) The queen replied at once, " that most assuredly, 
since she resided at Windsor, there had been no Nell Gwynn 
there." Those who best knew our late most gracious and 
correct Queen Charlotte, will readily believe that no jest 
was enveloped in this rather equivocal reply. However, 
although " there was much difficulty in procuring an authen- 
ticated portrait of Nell Gwynn," Mr. Murphy, under the 
patronage and by the command of the late Princess Charlotte 
of Wales at length succeeded ; and the portrait given in Mrs. 
Jameson's work is declared to be from an undoubted original, 
once in the possession of the St. Albans' family, but now 
belonging to General Grosvenor. 



Hbi- 



THE PRINCESS GWLADYS, 

ELDEST DAUGHTER OF BBYCHAN BRECHEINIOG. 

The memoirs of the daughters of Brychan Brecheiniog, 
to prevent the necessity of repetition, should be read in 
connection with the life of Marcheli, or Marcella, the 
mother of that ancient prince. In their matrimonial alliances 
these pious females were more remarkable for their union 
with good men, who favoured the propagation of Christianity, 
than those who were merely the mighty of the earth. 

"Gwladys,* the eldest daughter of Brychan married 
Gwnlliw ad Glewissus, regulus of that part of ancient Gwent 
(Monmouthshire), which lies between the rivers Usk 
and Rhymni,f then called Glewissig. Capgrave tells us, 
•' that Gunleus growing weary of the world, abdicated his 
government, and retired to a cell, where, living with singular 
austerity, he supported the remainder of his life by the labour 
of his hands." But John of Tinmouth, who calls him a 
king of the Southern Britons, says, " that after the death of 
his father, he being the eldest son, divided his kingdom into 
seven parts, six of which he gave his brethren, reserving to 
himself the other part, as well as the seigniory of the whole.'' 
He was attended in his last moments by Dubricius, bishop 
of Llandaff, and died in the arms of his son Cadoc, or Cattwg, 
on the 29th of March, A.D. 500. The churches of Llan- 
gynllo in Radnorshire, Nantgynllo in Cardiganshire, and St. 

* This name is pronounced Gladdis ; as none but very pedantic Welshmen 
would think of calling it Goo-la-dis. An English commercial traveller in 
North Wales noticing a cheerful looking child of that name, observed, " aye, a 
very proper name for you my dear, is Glad-eyes ; for you have as pleasant a 
pair of peepers as ever were cased in a pretty face ;— here's a penny for you 
Glad-ej r es — good bye Glad-eyes 1 — well if ever I have a little girl of my own 
I should like to have her christened Glad-eyes— good bye Glad-eyes!'' And 
off he strutted, leaving the poor child amazed, who, however, understood his 
present better than his compliments. We may add, this name, latinized, is 
Claudia. 

t Vulgarized to Rumney and Rummy, in modern times. 



tHE PKINCESS GWLADYS. 403 

Woolos, near Newport, in Monmouthshire, are consecrated 
to his memory ; and Ystradgynlais (vale of Gunlais) in Bre- 
conshire, on the borders of Glamorganshire, is also sup- 
posed to have derived its name from him. He left issue by 
his wife Gwladys, Cadoc or Cattwg ; Cynider ; and Cam- 
march. 

As Gwladys and her husband were especially honoured 
in their three sons, the following brief notices of them, from 
Jones's Breconshire, is as essential to their parents' celebrity 
as their own. 

" Cammarch has his name perpetuated by the church of 
Llangammarch, which was dedicated to him in the Eastern, 
or upper part of the Hundred of Builth, or Buallt, in the 
county of Brecon." 

u Cynider, lived a solitary life, as a hermit in Glamorgan- 
shire. He is said to have been buried at Glazebury, in 
Radnorshire. The churches dedicated to him are Llan- 
gydider and Abereskir, in Breconshire. For the history of 
the miracles attributed to him in Roman Catholic times, 
the whimsical and pious legends of Capgrave must be con- 
sulted." 

" Qp-doc or Cattw g, the elder brother whom we purposely 
name last^ was the most renowned of his brethren. He was 
educated under an Irjsh saint called Tathai, who had opened 
a celebrated school in Gwent, or Caerwent, the Venta Silu- 
rium of the Romans, and a portion of Monmouthshire in 
modern times. Having, agreeably to the law of Gavelkind, 
inherited part of his father's lands, he founded on his own 
portion the abbey of Llancarvan in Glamorganshire ; which 
he governed, and in which he exercised an unreserved system „ ... 
of hospitality. Capgrave tells us, he daily sustained one ~~-^ 
hundred ecclesiastical persons, as many widows^ ancTas many 
other poor people, besides those who visited him : for though 
he was an abbot and had many monks under his government 
he very properly and very prudently, reserved a part of his 
father's principality, to be charitably distributed to such as 
were in need. He is said to have died in North Wales, 
about the year 570. All the churches bearing the name of 
Llangattock were dedicated to his memory. Not the least 



404 THE PRINCESS GWLADYS. 

among the honours of Cattwg, was that of having been the 
tutor of Taliesin, celebrated in ancient British lore as the 
" Penbeirdd," or chief of the bards. But what has tended 
most to perpetuate the celebrity of Cattwg is the collection 
of proverbs and maxims of the Britons bearing his name. 
He is supposed to be the author of some of these "Diar- 
hebion Catwg," as they are called in Welsh ; and the care- 
ful editor or collector of the rest. The English reader will 
find the best collection of them in the pages of that excellent, 
but now scarce periodical, the Cambro Briton. 



w 



THE LADY GWLADYS DDU, 

DAUGHTER OF PRINCE LLEWELYN AB IOEWERTH, WIDOW OF 
REGINALD DE BEEOS, AND WIFE OF SIR RALPH MORTIMER, 
ANCESTOR OF KING EDWARD IV. 

Gwladys Ddu,* was the eldest daughter of Llewelyn ab 
Iorwerth, sovereign prince of North Wales, by his first wife 
Tangwystle ; consequently she was the sister by the same 
mother also of the disinherited Prince Griffith ab Llewelyn, 
and sister-in-law to his amiable wife Sina, as related in the 
memoir of that lady. 

As she lived in times when the most vigorous and incessant 
wars were carried on by England for the entire subjugation 
of her country, it is difficult to surmise, and impossible to 
account, at this distance of time, for her matrimonial 
position. At first sight it would appear, that with more 
prudence than patriotism, she quitted the losing, to unite 
herself to the winning side, in a political sense of the 
question ; and evidently with the concurrence of her father. 

She was married successively to two powerful Normap 
barons of great possessions in Wales, whose political alii- 
ance with her father, in his opposition to England, was 
perhaps stipulated for, in these marriage settlements, 
however ill attended to in after time. However, one sug- 
gestion is clear, in favour of the personal character of this 
lady — had she not shone in her sphere as the wife of the 
first, it is not probable she would be sought by a second 
husband of that nation. 

Her first husband was Reginald de Breos, son of the un- 
popular William de Breos and his wife Maud de Haia.f 

* Ddu, pronounced thee, literally meaning Black Gwladys, otherwise dark 
complexioned Gwladys ; there being no Welsh word for " Brunette," which 
would be the proper designation, although Wh ales abounds with that species of 
female beauty; which is more p revalent there than, the "Blondes," or the 
radiantly fair. 

t See her memoir in this work. 



406 THE LAEfY GWLADYS DDU. 

Reginald was at this time a widower, and considerably 
older than Gwladys, having been previously the husband 
of Groacia, daughter of William Bruere, lord of Bridge- 
water, by whom he had a daughter and two sons, 
named Mary, William,* and John, all living at the time 
of his second marriage. As the wife of an elder ly 
husband and stepmother to his children, there appears 
"to have been little attraction for a young wife, of 
princely connections, like Gwladys ; added to this, she 
must have felt a natural reluctance to unite her destiny to 
the representative of this unpopular family, abhorred as his 
father was in Wales, for his tyranny and cruelty while lord 
of Brecon and Abergavenny. The probability is, that 
Gwladys was of that gentle and docile turn of mind, that, 
submitting to the suggestions of her friends, and the com- 
mands of her father, she yielded to imperious necessity, and 
became a political victim for what was considered the good 
of her country. 

Reginald de Breos had at this time succeeded to the rank 
and possessions of his father, as lord of Brecknock and 
Abergavenny ; and his brother Giles, who was bishop of 
Hereford, dying soon after, as his heir at law, he became 
possessed of all his wealth and territories. Thus our Welsh 
lady had at least a rich husband, whatever else might have 
been his demerits. 

As might have been expected, he inherited all his father's 
animosity against king John, who caused his mother and 
brother to be put to a lingering and horrid death ; and how- 
ever deservedly drove his father a homeless vagabond over 
the face of the earth to die a beggar's death in a foreign 
land. The removal of his parents from this bustling scene 
of life, to make room for his own entrance on it the sooner, 
were crimes perhaps easily forgiven by our ambitious Nor- 
man; but there was another reason for his hostility to his sov- 
ereign, not so easily subdued. As the heir of William de 
Breos, we have shewn in our life of Maud de Haia, how he 

* This is the William de Breos whom Llewelyn ab Iorwerth caused to be 
hanged, in after years, for seduciug the Princess Joan his queen. 



THE LADY GWLADYS DDU. 407 

was deeply in the monarch's debt, with ample power but 
without the least inclination, to liquidate any portion of it; 
and as he doubtless found it more convenient to fight the 
king than pay him, he took his measures accordingly. By 
the influence acquired through his union with the princess 
Gwladys, and strengthened by his alliance with her father, 
he long combated the forces and resisted the attacks of 
John and his successor with various success, but ultimately 
preserving his property though often defeated by his adver- 
saries. Faithless as his father, though neither as reckless 
nor cruel, soon after his marriage Gwladys had the morti- 
fication and sorrow to find her husband had deserted the 
alliance with her father, and having reconciled himself to the 
king of England, he turned his arms against his late friends. 
But it was soon found by all parties that Reginald de Breos 
was one who could " turn, and turn, and turn again ;'' for 
upon some disgust or new views of policy, he again with- 
drew his alliance and engaged in a confederacy with 
Llewelyn and the English barons in resisting the power of 
his sovereign. John, however, in the last year of his reign, 
revenged himself by marching into "Wales and burning his 
castles of Hay and Radnor. Upon the accession of Henry 
III., overtures were made, to detach him from the interest 
of Llewelyn and his adherents ; and among other articles 
it was proposed that as a reward for his obedience his 
English estates should be restored to him, to be held on 
the same terms as those which bound his late brother bishop 
Giles. The English monarch knew his man well ; a true 
De v Breos in his enormous greediness for gain, he was caught 
by the bait, and thus allured, his poor wife Gwladys had 
the unhappiness to find that he had again deserted her 
father, regardless of the solemn engagements he had made 
with him, returned to England, when the castles of Totness, 
Barnstaple, and other escheated property were delivered 
up to him by the commands of the English sovereign. 

We may naturally suppose that at this juncture Gwladys 

returned to her father,* but how the children of De Breos 

• Among the scenic charms of the river Neath and its tributary streams are 

some cataracts of great beauty; and among them on the river l'yiddin is a 

2 L 



408 THE LADY GWLADYS DDU. 

were disposed of is unknown. Llewelyn justly incensed at 
such a breach of faith, laid siege to the town of Brecknock, 
which in the first transport of his rage, he determined to 
demolish. But afterwards, upon the humble petition of the 
burgesses, and the earnest intercession of his nephew Rhys, 
he was prevailed upon to spare it ; and having taken five 
hostages for their future good behaviour, and one hundred 
marks as a compensation to his troops for their march, he 
crossed the mountains towards Gower. Regina ld, now 
ashamed of his conduct, or alarmed for the safety of his 
Welsh, possessions, and regretting perhaps his absence from 
ajaelojredwife who seems never to have interfered in poli- 
tics, founoTnimself in a perilous dilemma. Attended by 
six knights he came to Llanquik, a parish in Glamor- 
ganshire, where his father-in-law was then encamped, and 
tendered him his submission, earnestly entreating pardon 
for his past conduct, and promising never to offend him 
again. Llewelyn, with characteristic generosity and 
clemency, not only instantly forgave his former perfidy, 
but received him with all the mildness of paternal affection; 
and in the plenitude of confidence pu tjiim in possession o f 
the strong fortress of C aerphilly, doubtless the~~largest 
castle in "^Yales, situate in the highlands of Glamorganshire. 
He then proceeded with his troops to Dyved, and concluded 
the campaign with equal honour to himself and advantage to 
his country. 

The reconciliation between Reginald and Llewelyn was 
highly resented by the court of London, and in consequence 
of it, the lordships of Blaenllyvai and Talgarth, which since 
the death of his brother bishop Giles, had been enjoyed by 
Reginald, were by a royal mandate transferred to Peter 
Fitzherbert. 

In all probability Reginald employed the years that fol- 
lowed his reconciliation with Llewelyn, in a crusade or pil- 
grimage to Jerusalem. For Dugdale says, " one of the charters 

cascade that bears the name of Yscwd Gwladys. It is probable it was so 
called from this lady, who during her first husband's defection may have 
accompanied her father in bis Glamorganshire warfare campaign, and maKing 
the vicinity of the cascade the scene of her meditations, her name was given 
to it by some of her admiring contemporaries. 



THE LADY GWLADYS DDTJ. 409 

to the monks of Brecon was granted after his return from the 
Holy Land ; which also accounts for his effigy being placed 
cross-legged on his tomb." Nothing further is known of 
the life or exploits of this first husband of Gwladys ; but, 
according to Theophilus Jones, he died in 1228 ; and was 
buried in the Priory Church of Brecon.* 

Gwladys r emained a widow twelve years, and in the 
year 1240 was married to Ralph Mortimer,f lord of Me- 
linydd, in Radnorshire, another of the powerful Norman 
barons who possessed several castles, and a considerable 
extent of territory in Wales. On her union with him, her 
father gave the territories of Kerry and Kedowyn, as her 
marriage portion ; and as this property was contiguous to 
the other possessions of his son-in-law, he must have found 
this a very desirable arrangement. 

In the Year 1242, we find her husband extending his 
possessions southward, by building the castles of Knucklas, 
and Keven-llys, all in the neighbourhood of his other 
dominions. One curious circumstance attended this union, 
which aids to mark the character of a man, who in after 
years became so signally infamous. William de Breos the 
younger, her late husband's eldest son by his first marriage, 
" was so little pleased with this second marriage of his father's 
widow, that he contested her right to the jointure assigned 
her by her late husband ;" but, according to Theophilus 

• The poet Thomas Churchyard mentions, in his rude versification, 
that ^Reginald's efiigy lies cross-legged, on his monument, which position 
always designated those who had visited the holy sepulchre ; and that 
the material of which this efiigy was carved was 

" Of most hard wood, which wood as divers say 
No worm can eat, nor Tyme can weare away. 

But like many other things "which divers say," it is now completely 
falsified ; for not a pinch of dust remains of this famous wood either 
in the form of Reginald or the crouching hound at.his feet. 



+ The Mortimers are descended from the niece of Gonora, wife of 
Richard I. Duke of Normandy. Among the Norman adventurers in 
Wales they obtained by conqnest a considerable portion of Radnorshire, 
after defeating Edric the Wild (Edric Sylvaticus), a Saxon who had seised 
these districts from the Welsh. 




410 THE LADY GWLADYS DDU. 

Jones, it " does not appear that he was successful in his 
opposition." 

But however blest by affluence, and protected by power, 
Gwladys was far from enjoying unalloyed happiness. She 
observed, with natural regret, that her new husband, con- 
trary to the calculations of her father, was unchangeably 
firm in his attachment to English interests, and in every 
instance of hostility between the two nations, always in 
opposition to the independence tf Wales. Under these 
circumstances, she became estranged to her father's court, 
as she could have no intercourse where her husband's views 
were beheld with a jealous eye, if not with the more decided 
glance of hostility. Another cause existed, that made her 
visits to her father still less desirable. Llewelyn ab 
Iorwerth had contracted a second marriage with the Lady 
Joan, daughter of John, the reigning king of England. 
This princess is supposed to have alienated the affection 
and fomented the quarrels and heart-burnings between her 
husband and his eldest son. When she gave birth to her 
son David, her motive for such proceedings became more 
apparent ; and when, by her machinations she succeeded 
in after-time in inducingLlewelyn to disinherit the unhappy 
Prince Griffith, and to name David as his successor, the 
dislike of Gwladys, to her English stepmother as might 
be expected, became a confirmed hatred. On her father's 
death in 1240, and the succession of David to the throne 
of North Wales, Gwladys induced her husband to unite 
his interests with her sister-in-law Sina, the bishop of 
Bangor, and certain confederated noblemen of Wales, to 
solicit David, for the liberation of Prince Griffith from his 
confinement in Criccieth castle. Although many of the 
principal chieftains of the country took an earnest part in 
this generous undertaking, all their exertions proved una- 
vailing. Even the influence of the king of England, which 
the confederates had secured in favour of that measure, 
ultimately took a contrary turn, and ended in his perpetual 
confinement in the tower of London. 

As the law now stood, the children of Prince Griffith 
were excluded from the succession ; and Prince David being 



THE LADY GWLADYS DDU. 411 

childless, Gwladjs became heiress presumptive to the throne 
of North Wales; hut with a singular and audacious disregard 
of national right Henry III., named his own son Edward, as 
the future inheritor of the principality of Wales. 

In the year 1241, when David revolted from his shameful 
vassalage to the English king, provoked to frenzy by the 
last-stated insult, his first act of hostility was to revenge 
himself on his half-sister Gwladys and her husband, for 
their interference in favour of the unfortunate Prince 
Griffith. He laid their territories waste, with fire and 
sword; and then proceeded to inflict the same severities on 
other feudatories of the king of England. 

Having long given up all hopes of being enabled to relieve 
her uuhappy brother Griffith from the miseries of imprison- 
ment in a gloomy fortress, in the year 1244 she had to 
endure the heaviest stroke of affliction, from the death of that 
beloved and much wronged brother, who perished, as related 
in our life of Sina, in his attempt to escape from the tower 
of London. 

In the year 1346, when the death of David took place, 
it is probable there would have been a strong party in 
favour of placing Gwladys on the vacant throna of North 
Wales ; as the chieftains of the country had solemnly 
renounced their allegiance to the line and posterity of 
Griffith, but for one insurmountable bar — her marriage with 
an Englishman. In Sir Ralph Mortimer, the husband of 
Gwladys, they not only beheld an Englishman, but one 
who, notwithstanding his union with their princess, and 
his large possessions in Wales and its borders, always advo- 
cated English interests, in opposition to the weal of Wales. 
Under these circumstances the people most wisely tran- 
ferred their allegiance to Llewelyn, the gallant son of their 
lost Prince Griffith. 

Neither the period of the death of Gwladys nor her 
place of interment is upon record ; but it is certain she 
died before the fall of her nephew Llewelyn ab Griffith, 
"whom her husband and her son successively opposed in 
arms, till the entire subjugation of the country by the 
English. That memorable crisis, which became the gradual 
2l2 



412 THE LADY GWLADYS DDU. 

work of centuries to accomplish, was at length brought 
about by an army commanded by her grandson Sir Edmund 
Mortimer, in the year 1282; emphatically proving the evil 
tendency, at that time, to Wales, of English alliances by 
marriages. For the better part of a centurjr__previous to 
the destruction of Welsh independence, the prevalence 
among the Welsh princes and chieftains, of marrying with 
English ladies ; and of English_nobles with the princesses 
and noble ladies of Wales, grew frequent. Unfortunately, 
in all cases these unions became fatal in their consequences, 
and like subterranean fires, worked insidiously towards the 
final explosion, — the grand catastrophe of Cambrian anni- 
hilation and English triumph. We find David ab Owen 
Gwyneth, to support him in his usurpation of the crown of 
North Wales, married the princess Emma, sister of Henry 
II. of England; Henry is said to be the inventor of this 
species of " seduction," as Warrington calls it. In this, as 
in later instances, it had the evil effect of bringing foreign 
troops to oppose legitimate succession, and to uphold usur- 
pation and its hideous train of evils ; while the unlawful 
monarch of the day, shorn of the splendour of independence, 
became the contemptible satrap of the king of England. 
Griffith ab Madoc, lord of Dinas Bran, is stigmatized in 
Welsh history as a jraito r Jto his c ountry, in consequence of 
of his marriage with the lady Emma, daughter of Lord James 
Audley, Llewelyn ab Iorwerth's union with the lady Joan, 
daughter of King John, caused him to disinherit his eldest 
son, and change the order of succession ; one of the most 
disastrous of measures, which led that gallant prince to sink 
from the patriot hero of his early life to the voluntary vas- 
sal of the English king, in the dotage of his old age. 
Lastly, the heroine of this memoir, by her two English mar- 
riages wrought far more evil than good to her country, 
although her father and the Welsh politicians of his day 
may have urged each match and anticipated from it contrary 
consequences. Another result of these marriages was, that 
it brought the English tongue, or the wretched anglo- Saxon 
jargon so called, into repute and fashion, at the" different 
courts and castles in Wales, to the prejudice of the native 



THE LADY GWLADYS DDU. 413 

language, which at this period had attained great per- 
fection. We have the authority of the celebrated poet, 
Lewis, of Glyn cothi, for stating that Gwladys Ddu, the 
lady of our memoir, although married successively to iwo 
English noblemen, was not among those anti-patriotic ladies 
who encouraged this new-fangled folly ; but she is favour- 
ably noted for supporting the vernacular strains of the 
ba^ds and harpers of Wale3, to the latest period of her 
existence. 

In closing our memoir of the Princess Gwladys Ddu, we 
naturally turn, with that interest which historical occurrences 
ever command, to theorem ark ablejrace which sprang from her 
union with Sir Ralph Mortimer. As the most memorable 
events in English history, are not only connected with, but 
take their origin from the personal character of these Morti- 
mers, which brought some to the block, and elevated others to 
the throne, a slight notice of the progeny of Ralph Mortimer 
and his Welsh wife Gwladys Ddu, will not be out of place here. 

Roger Mortimer, son oT Ralph and Gwladys, was 
remarkable only for his active but unavailing hostility 
towards Prince Llewelyn ab Griffith, his maternal uncle ; 
and for supporting English interests in Wales, — succeeded 
by his son. 

Edmund Mortimer, like his grandfather and father, 
warred against the independence of Wales, and succeeded 
in the grand object wherein they both failed. The army 
under his command had the honour of defeating Llewelyn 
ab Griffith, who gallantly fell in the field of battle on the 
banks of the river Irvon, near Builth or Ruallt, Breconshire, 
in the eighth year of the reign of King Edward I. He was 
succeeded by his son, Roger Mortimer — made earl of 
March, in the reign of King Edward II. At first we find 
him honourably engaged, with the barons of England, to 
put down the pernicious influence of the favourites of King 
Edward II. After their destruction, and the cruel murder 
of that unfortunate monarch, he became an equally pestilent 
character to the nation, as the unworthy paramour of 
Edward's infamous queen. He was the "gentle Mor- 
timer'* of this criminal French woman, whom Gray the 



414 THE LADY GWLADYS DDU. 

J Art poet has eternally stigmatised as the "she wolf of France," 
for the part she took in causing her husband's death. He 
was deservedly beheaded, in the year 1330, by the command 
of King Edward III. Succeeded by his grandson, Edmund 
Mortimer, earl of March. He appears to have been an 
amiable contrast to his criminal grandfather. He married 
Philippa, only daughter of Lionel, duke of Clarence, the 
third son of King Edward III., and was by that monarch 
appointed lord-deputy of Ireland, and died in his govern- 
ment there, in the year 1382. Succeeded by his son, Roger 
Mortimer, earl of March, bprnatUsk, in Monmouthshire; 
he was appointed, by Richard IL, lord-deputy of Ireland ; 
and by virtue of his descent by his mother from Edward III. 
he was nominated by parliament as heir apparent, to suc- 
ceed to the throne after King Richard II. He did not live 
to enjoy that honour, having been murdered in the Irish 
insurrection of 1415. To avenge his death and punish the 
rebels, Richard II. personally led an army into Ireland. 
Succeeded by his son,* Edmund Mortimer. 

Edmund Mortimer the rightful heir to the crown of 
England, was only six years of age at his father's 
death, when he and his younger brother were imprisoned 
in Windsor Castle by the usurper, Henry IV., to deter 
his friends from raising Edmund to the throne. His 
uncle, Sir Edmund Mortimer, was at this time a willing 
prisoner with Owen Glendower in Wales, having married 
that chieftain's daughter. These children were at length 
delivered from their captivity by the contrivance of Lady 
Constance Spencer, who caused false keys to be made. 
Having effected their deliverance, she was hurrying with 
them towards Wales when she was overtaken, and with 
the children imprisoned in Windsor Castle.f From this 

* Sir Edmund Mortimeffthe brother of this Roger, earl of March, after being 
taken prisoner by Owen Glendower, in 1424, married that chieftain's daughter, 
and united with him and Harry Percy, earl of Northumberland, to dethrone 
Henry IV. and raise his nephew, Edmund, to the crown ; in which aim they 
were baffled by the disastrous result of the battle of Shrewsbury. 

i The poor Bmith who made the false keys, after haying both his hands cut 
off, was beheaded. 



THE LADY GWLADYS DDU. 415 

state Edmund was delivered by the magnanimity of 
Henry V., who, though well aware of his prior right to the 
throne, not only released him from confinement, hut treated 
him with great kindness and made him the most powerful 
subject in the realm. The earl of March was not ungrate- 
ful ; he allowed his claims to slumber, and served Henry 
faithfully. Died r without issue r in the third year of the 
reign of Henry VI. Succeeded by his sister, Anne Mor- 
timer, married to Richard Conesburgh, earl of Cambridge, 
second son of Edward, duke of York. This union became 
the fertile source of troubles that long agitated the kingdom. 
Her husband, conspiring against Henry V. to recover the 
crown for his brother-in-law, Roger Mortimer, earl of 
March, was tried and executed in 1415, previous to Henry's 
departure for France to fight the battle of Agincourt. The 
elder brother of Anne's husband was Richard, duke of York, 
who fell in that battle ; and having no issue he was suc- 
ceeded by his nephew 

Richard PlAntagenet, duke of York, son of the earl 
of Cambridge, who was beheaded at Southampton in 1415; 
following in the footsteps of his father, he commenced the 
civil wars of England, called the wars of the Roses, by 
claiming the crown for himself. Defeated by Queen Mar- 
garet, and slain at the battle of Wakefield, in 1460, and his 
head, crowned with paper, placed over the city gates of 
York. Succeeded by his son, Edward, earl of March, who 
afterwards became. 

King Edward IV. Whence Edward V. and young 
Richard, duke of York, the children murdered in the tower 
of London by order of their uncle, the duke of Gloucester, 
who then became 

King Richard III. ; slain in the battle of Bosworth field, 
in 1485, which ended the royal race of the Plantagenets and 
the civil wars of York and Lancaster, by the succession of 
the Lancasterian earl of Richmond, who became 

King Henry VII. ; and marrying the daughter of 
Edward IV., united the two houses of York and Lan- 
caster. 



Hlfo 



THE LAM GWYLADYS. 

DAUGHTER OF SIR DAVID GAM, WIDOW OF SIR ROGER VAUGHAN 
OF BREDWARDINE ; WIFE OF SIR WILLIAM AB THOMAS, OF 
RHAGLAN CASTLE ; AND MOTHER OF LORD WILLIAM HER- 
BERT, EARL OF PEMBROKE, AND SIR RICHARD HERBERT, 
OF COLDBROOK,* MONMOUTHSHIRE. 

" Seben Venni."— Lewis Glyncothi. 
Abergavenny's bbilliant stab.— Translation- 

Gwladys was the daughter of a gentleman of considerable 
wealth and landed property, who, in after years, became 
very celebrated as a military character. His proper name 
was David ab Llewelyn ab Howel Vychan. But he is 
better known to posterity as David Gam ; so called from 
a cast in his eye : Gam, or Cam, being a Welsh word 
literally signifying crooked ; but applied to an obliquity 
of vision, means squinting. And that appellation, originally 
a descriptive nickname, in the course of time became 
generally accepted, and more honoured than his legitimate 
designation. 

The mother of Gwladys was a lady of the name of 
Gwenllian, daughter of Gwilym ab Howel, an affluent 
country gentleman, residing at his seat called Grach, in 
Elval, on the banks of the Wye, Radnorshire. The family 
residence of the parents of Gwladys was principally on an 
estate near the town of Brecon, called Petyn Gwyn, in the 
parish of Garthbrengy.f Another residence of theirs was 

* Although her two ennobled sons only are here mentioned, Gwladys, by her 
first marriage, was the mother of five children, hereafter to be noticed ; and 
among others, of Thomas Vaughan of Hergest, married to Ellen Gethin, who 
was killed at the battle of Danesmore, where his two above named half brothers 
were beheaded ; and of eight children, including the above (the Herberts), by 
her second marriage. 

t Theophllus Jones, in his history of the town and county of Brecknock, says, 
" the whole of Garthbrengy, at one time or other, and, indeed, the whole of the 
county, has been in the possession of the family of the Gams ; bat the mansion 
and principal residence of the valorous ancestor, from whom they derive their 
name, was Petyn Gwyn." 



THE LADY GWLADYS. 417 

Old Court, in the county of Monmouth, " the site of which 
is in a field adjoining Llandeilo Cressanwy House, on the 
Lanvapley road, midway between Abergavenny and Mon- 
mouth."* She had two brothers older than herself, of the 
respective names of Morgan and Thomas ; and it is probable 
they were all born at Petyn Gwyn, previous to the year 
1402, a period very disastrous to the father of this family; 
fatal to his wife, and most perilous and distressing to the 
hildren. 

Nothing can be more true than that point so tardily con- 
ceded by the world, though still opposed by bad novelists 
and dreary dramatists who deal in beatific heroes and dia- 
bolical villains, that no men are wholly good or wholly bad. 
Thus it was with Sir David Gam ; in Welsh history his 
name is a blot that stains the fair page which records his 
deeds ; while in English or Anglo-Cambrian annals he shines 
forth as a star of some magnitude. 

The murder of Richard II., and the usurpation of 
Henry IV., in England, and the insurrection of Owen 
Glendower, in Wales, were the stirring political events of 
these times. In our account of "Glendower's Female 
Family,'' in this work, we have stated the particulars of 
that great outbreak, which agitated England and Wales 
for fifteen years. This rebellion originating in a private 
wrong endured by that chieftain, after bis success in righting 
himself, became the pretence for a public regeneration of 
the country, which in the opinion of the Welsh who fa- 
voured Glendower, could only be effected by casting off the 
yoke of England, and expelling the English entirely from 
its soil. During the two hundred years which had nearly 
passed away since the death of Llewelyn, its last native 
prince, and the conquest of the country, as might be ex- 
pected, many of the principal families in Wales not only 
became reconciled to English rule, but preferred their_^ 

* Coxe, in Ms Monmouthshire Tour, remarks, " Mr. Lewis (Llantilio Cres-~ 
sanwy), pointed out to me in the midst of an adjoining field, which is part of a 
farm belonging to the duke of Beaufort, called the park, the site of Old Court, 
formerly the residence of Sir David Gam. It was formerly the red deer park 
pertaining to Rhaglan Castle. 



418 THE LADY GWLADYS. 

government to that of their native princes, of which they 
knew little beyond what they received through the uncertain 
channels of tradition. Those Welshmen who enjoyed posts 
of honour or emolument under the English sovereigns thus 
had their motives for loyalty greatly strengthened, and their 
services insured to the reigning monarch. Of the latter 
kind was the family of Sir David Gam of Breconshire. 
With his violent temperament and strong political bias, 
although evidently stimulated only by expediency, for 
principle could have no share in his devotion to the house 
of Lancaster, David Gam could view his aspiring country- 
man in no other light than that of a disturber of the public 
peace, and the traitorous enemy of the sovereign whom he 
served ; wilfully forgetting that Owen Glendower had all 
his life been the consistent and faithful adherent of King 
Richard, even beyond the grave,* while he himself espoused 
the cause of an usurper. Well would it have been for the 
honour and reputation of David Gam, had he acted on the 
views which he professed, and openly opposed in arms the 
man whom he had, as he conceived, doomed to destruction. 
But as he descended to the baseness of calling the dark 
spirit of treachery to his aid, in ridding his king of a 
powerful foe, it is the business of history to deal with him 
according to the enormity of his guilt. 

The subsequent conduct of Bolingbroke leaves him open 
to the suspicion of havinof' secretly employed David Gam 
to assassinate the enemy whom his forces had failed to 
crush in the field. Gain voluntarily entered the service 
of Glendower, and appeared, like the rest of his partizans, 
an enthusiastic supporter dftiis cause. 

It was in the year 1402, that bright period in the ex- 
istence of Glendower, when that wonderful man had suc- 
cessively triumphed over Lord Reginald Grey of Ruthin 
and the various powers sent against him by the king of 
England, that the father of the lady of this memoir cast 

C* It is worthy of remark that the father ofJD avid Gam filled the same office 
at the court of Henry IV. which Owen Glendower occupied under Richard II. ; 
that of scutiger or squire to the king. 



THE LADY GWLADYS. 419 

off his disguise of Welsh patriotism, and exhihited himself 
in his true character. It was on the day fixed for the 
coronation of the triumphant hero of the day, now to be 
transformed into a sovereign prince, and clad in the trap- 
pings of royalty, when every chieftain came forward to 
render his willing homage, that David Gam was discovered 
— like the demon of malignity — lowering on the imposing 
scene. He grasped a dagger in his hand, and stood pre- 
pared to rush forward and plunge it in the bosom of the 
man hailed by his countrymen as the liberator of the nation 
from English bondage, when he was seized, and stood con- 
demned, by his own vaunting confession of his intent. 
That the detected and baffled traitor was not instantly 
put to death, may be attributed to the clemency or super- 
stition of Glendower, who might consider such an act of 
severity, however well merited, as an ill omen on the day 
dedicated to the celebratiou of his prosperous fortunes. 
However, David Gam had to endure many years of close 
captivity in a prison at Machynlleth, in Montgomeryshire.* 
Had Owen Glendower limited his resentment to the 
incarceration of his treacherous countryman, it would have 
been well for his fame, which stands deeply tarnished by 
his appalling proceedings in visiting his vengeance on the 
unoffending family of his victim. He is recorded to have 
entered Breconshire with a strong party of his followers, 
and arriving atPetyn Gwyn, seized on the Lady Gwenllian, 
wife of Gam, and after dishonouring her in the most atrocious 
manner, shut her up in the house, and burnt the mansion to 
the ground. After these dire doings, at which humanity 
shudders? and while the house was still in flames, Owen is 
represented as fiercely triumphing in his diabolical revenge, 
as commemorated by himself in a "Welsh Euglyn, or 
epigram, spontaneously produced on the occasion. Perhaps 
in the entire history of the metrical art or poetic inspiration, 
never was the devilish voice of a Fury muse awakened by 
a more infernal transaction, or to a more heartless and 



* This place at Machynlleth, in Montgomeryshire, still bears the name ef 
Carchardy Owain Glyndwr," or Owen Glen dower's prison. 
2 M 



420 THE LADY GWLADYS. 

demoniac incantation. The chieftain, in this select little 
composition, appears near the scene of his recent enormities, 
calling to a shepherd, one of David Gam's tenants, in the 
following magnanimous strain : — 

Gweli di wr cech Cam 
Yn ymovyn y girnigwen, 
Dywed ei bod hi tan y Ian 
A nod y glo ar ei phen. 

The following is a translation :— 

Seest thou a red-hair'd squinting urchin 
For his lost white-horn' d one* searching, 
Tell him beneath the bank she's laid, 
Black coal for ochre marks her head. 

Thus it was that Gwladys, the lady of our memoir, and 
her two brothers, though both her seniors, still but young 
children, so awfully lost their unhappy mother, how these 
children were preserved from the murderous violence here 
described, has never been recorded ; but it may be sur- 
mised that they w ere at this time, either in the care of foster 
parents, in the immediate neighbourhood : or that in the 
confusion of the assault they were safely borne away by 
some attached servants, and brought to their father's other 
mansion, Old Court, in the county of Monmouth. 

After this horrible catastrophe, David Gam remained a 
prisoner at Machynlleth full ten years, and was liberated at 
length by the intervention of the king of England. This 
circumstance makes it probable that there was a private 
understanding between them, previous to Gam's entrance 
into the service of Glendower ; wbich, if true, will account 
for the peculiar conduct which we have detailed of the 
former. "In the year 1412," observes Theophilus Jones, 
ei David Gam was still in durance, and Henry negociating 
for his release. He was under the necessity of permitting 
by writ, his esquire, Llewelyn ab Howel, father of David 
Gam, to make use of Sir John Tiptofte and William Botiller, 
to treat with Glendower for his enlargement ; but the result 
is not recorded." The probability is, that through the 
successful intervention of his English friends, David Gam 

* Meaning the violated and murdered vrife of David Gam. 



THE LADY GWLADTS. 421 

obtained his release about the latter end of the year 1412. 
One thing, however, is certain, that no sooner did he gain 
his liberty than he took every opportunity to harass and 
annoy Glendower and his partizans. He attacked them 
with his own tenantry and the forces left at his disposal by- 
England, and betrayed the designs of Owen to the king, 
whenever he could discover them. This conduct drew on 
him the vengeance of his adversary once more, who entered 
Monmouthshire with the most hostile determination, and 
destroyed Gam's mansion of Old Court, as he had formerly 
done that of Petyn Gwyn in 1402. Fortunately, in the 
latter affair, there appears to have been no sacrifice of 
human life. David Gam, probably expecting such a day 
of retribution, from the known character of his enemy, made 
a timely escape with his three children to England, and 
found refuge with his father, at the court of Henry IV. 

To dismiss with the J?est"§peed <he bad portion of Gam's 
character, and hasten towards the, brilliant part of his 
career, we may here state, that besides his treachery to 
Glendower, there is another heavy/stain on his memory. 
Previous to the transactions recorded above, in a bitter 
family feud, he assaulted a near relative, his uncle, and slew 
him in the street at Brecon. Ami now, having given his 
worst of deea%$he worst of words, divested of all local par- 
tiality, it will be^ajajjt-to record his future proceedings, 
which were as honourable to his name as the former stood 
heinously disgraceful. 

Thus driven from their last home in Wales, Gwladys, 
with her father, grandfather, and her two brothers, found 
her new home in the metropolis of England, and at the 
court of its monarch, however strange at first, in the course 
of time not only endurable, but happy. Here she spent 
some of the most important years of her girlhood, a cir- 
cumstance that was doubtless favourable to her education, 
in the acquirement of the accomplishments of her time, 
which so eminently fitted her to grace that station in 
society, to which she was called in after time. What 
other advantages she gained from this change of nation, 
language, and manners, we are not informed, nor, whatever 



422 THE LADY GWLADYS. 

they might be, whether they permanently added to her 
stock of happiness. It would appear that about the seven- 
teenth year of her age Gwyladys returned to Wales 
as she was married at a very early age to Rosser Vychan, 
Anglicised into Roger Vaughan, Esq., of Bredwardine 
Castle, in Herefordshire,* a gentleman of wealth, rank, and 
high respectability ; an especial friend of her father's, and in 
after years his companion in arms in the hard fought battle 
field of Agincourt. From the period of her marriage she 
never again left Wales, but spent a great portion of her 
long life in entire happiness at the castle of Bredwardine. 
In the famous elegy written on her by the poet Lewis 
Glyncothi, she is especially praised for her patronage of 
the Welsh language ; so that it appears her long residence 
in England did not cool her affection either for her mother 
tongue or her fatherland. It is not improbable but that 
those Welsh partizans of the English court, her father's 
select friends, among whom she spent her days, might have 
evinced their partiality for the English language, which 
Ihey introduced into and encouraged in Wales ; and doubt- 
less it was to counteract this unpatriotic influence that 
Gwladys personally encouraged the vernacular Welsh* 
She was not only a supporter of her native language but a 
liberal encourager of everything laudable in Cambrian 
nationality ; especially of the ^rflfi HAf! ""UfitrP 1 ^ of her 
time, to whose occasional or regular periodic visits the 
munificent halls of Bredwardine were ever open, the 
plenteous board and hirlas horn prepared, and the final 
" largess," in gold and silver, with other gifts, liberally 
distributed. When it is considered that there were neither 
ne ws^ ap ers^^ niLagazInes, nor, re views, circulating in those 
days, the appreciation of this order of men, who travelled 
through every district of the principality, and visited 



* Bredwardine Castle was situated on the banks of the Wye, two miles 
above Moccas, or Moccas Court, the seat of Sir George Aniyand Cornewall. 
Bart., M.P. It has long been destroyed: the ruins are said to have furnished 
great part of the materials used in the erection of the ancient residence of the 
Cornewalls at Moccas. From the imperfect traces that remain, it appears to 
have been a strong and massive fortress. 



THE LADY GWLADYS. 423 

every mansion of note, was held in very high regard by 
the wealthy, who alone could afford to entertain and reward 
them, that they were literally indispensible ; and, indeed, 
it was no slight degree of affluence that proved equal to 
such an extensive expenditure. In Lewis Glyncothi's 
elegy, among other honourable designations, Gwladys is 
called "the strength and support of Gwentland and the 
land of Brychan" (the counties of Monmo uth and Brecon) :* 
the poor of which countries she supported on a very ex- 
tensive scale. 

Previous to the year 1415, she had become the mother 
of five children, some of whom in after time performed 
conspicuous parts in the great drama of life. Her three 
sons were Watkin, Thomas, and Rosser; and her two 
daughters, Elizabeth and Blanch. They were all united 
in marriage with persons of the first consideration in their 
day. Watkin married a daughter of Sir Henry Wogan ; 
Thomas espoused the daring and eccentric Ellen Gethin, 
as narrated in her memoir ; and Rosser (afterwards known 
as the second Sir Roger Vaughan of Tretower), became 
the husband of the beautiful Cicely, daughter of Thomas 
ab Philip Vychan, of Talgarth, celebrated as "Dam 
SisiP' in one of the poems of Lewis Glyncothi. Her 
daughters were equally well married ; Elizabeth became 
the wife of a gentleman named Griffith ab Eineon ; and 
Blanch was united to an Englishman of fortune of the 
name of John Milwater. 

The tranquility and happiness which had thus far fa- 
voured the married days of Gwladys were now about to 
take their departure, and to be succeeded by fatal wars, 
and their usual consequences of premature death and un- 
availing sorrow. Great changes had taken place in the 
political hemisphere of England; Henry IV. had been 
struck off the list of living monarchs, and his throne filled 
by his heroic son, Henry V., more honoured in Wales by 

* As Bredwardine Castle where she resided is in Herefordshire, it is rather 
curious that county is not mentioned as partaking of her munificence, unless 
Owentland, according to the ancient division of the country, included a portion 
of Herefordshire. 

2 m 2 



,,,,, 



424 THB LADY GWLADTS. 

his popular designation of Harry of Monmouth. The year 
1415 saw that daring prince embark for the continent for 
the invasion of France, the crown of which kingdom he 
claimed in right of its conquest by his ancestor, Edward III. 
Among the many thousands who formed his army were 
David Gam, the father of Gwladys, Rosser Vychan, or 
Roger Vaughan, her husband, and her third son of the 
same name, then a very young man and recently married. 
Of the three, the latter alone was destined to see his home 
and kindred again. 

As the lady of our memoir derived her principal claim to 
distinction from her birth and marriages, that is to say, 
from her near relationship to no less' than f o ur oflh e fo e^QftS 
\tjL>^ of Agincourt (her father, son, and two husbands), a summary 
> oft!fe'per11s, sufferings, and exploits of the army of which 
they formed a part, that embarked for France on this 
memorable occasion becomes essential here ; which we 
shall abridge to a needful compass of brevity, from different 
versions of national historians. 

King Henry embarked with his army at Southampton, 
on the 19th of August, 1415. His fleet consisted of 1500 
transport ships, in which were embarked 6000 men at arms, 
and 20,000 archers,* making in all 50,000 men. He landed 
his .troops at Havre de Grace, in Normandy, on the 21st of 
August, and without loss of time marched on to Harfleur, 
a fortified town nine miles distant, and invested it. After 
a siege of five weeks, the garrison, which had made a 
vigorous defence, surrendered. Henry took possession of 
the town, expelled the inhabitants, and repeopled it with 
a colony of Englishmen.! With great prudence the king 
caused Harfleur to be entirely repaired, and placed in a 
good state of defence, as a place of retreat in case of adverse 
fortune. In the mean time he sent a written challenge to 
the dauphin, then the representative of royalty in France 

* So says Bapin, but Monstrelet states 24,000 archers. 

+ He put forth a proclamation that all persons who would come over from 
EDgland and settle at Harfleur should have houses secured to them and their 
heirs ; upon which great numbers transplanted themselves and families thither. 



THE LADY GWLADTS. 425 

during the insanity of his father, Charles VI.* Henry now 
formed the resolution of marching by land through France, 
towards the English town of Calais. His army at this 
time was dreadfully afflicted with the flux, which had 
carried off some of the nobility, and many of the common 
soldiers ; while in fact an entire fourth of his army was 
suffering in the complaint. 

The French having heard of the intention of the English 
king prepared their forces and threw every possible im- 
pediment in the way of his march, broke down all the 
bridges and causeways in his route, and intrenched them- 
selves in fortified places, while every ford or passable place 
on the rivers were strongly guarded by troops. Added to 
these disheartening obstacles, the horrors of famine beset 
them wherever they moved, as all the cattle were driven off 
on their approach, and all the provisions which could not 
be timely removed, destroyed. Never perhaps, on the most 
trying of occasions, had the peculiarities of English nation- 
ality under the gloom of disastrous fortune, been displayed 
more advantageously, and placed on a par with Roman 
daring and endurance, in the best days of her virtuous 
republic. Hannibal's decisive measure of burning his ships 
to prevent the possibility of retreat, was not more demon- 
strative of indomitable resolution, than the determination 
of the English king to march forward ; although safety 
within the walls of Harfleur was in the rear, and a proba- 
bility of annihilation in the van. But Henry had one 
advantage over the heroes of antiquity ; his devoted follow- 
ers required no impulsive measures to drive them forward, 
or to scare from them despondent thoughts of retreat. His 
small army, to a man, although suffering intensely by 
disease, starvation, and fatigue, that daily thinned their 
numbers, were as eager as himself to continue their onward 
course to Calais. Rapin says he continued his march along 

* This challenge was dated September, 1415 ; it does not appear that the 
dauphin sent any answer. The subject of it was an offer on the part of the 
English king to decide all their differences i» a single combat between their two 
persons, these differences being no less, accordin^ltfMSTIoaoii, than the whole 
kingdom of France, 



426 THE LADY GWLADYS. 

the Somme with a resolution to face whatever danger awaited 
them on the other side. As the passages, however, were 
no longer defended, he found one between St. Quintin and 
Peronne, where, on the 19th October he caused his army 
to pass. But when this obstacle, which had hitherto 
seemed the greatest, was removed, the English army found 
themselves in no better condition.* They soon learnt that 
the French were immensely their superiors in numerical 
strength, healthy and unharrassed, issuing in all directions 
from their comfortable quarters, buoyant in spirits and full 
of insolent swagger, prepared to waylay and give them 
battle, as soon as they came in contact with them. 

" While the English monarch and his army were on their 
route in this deplorable condition, the constable of France, 
who was the commander in chief, and the princes who were 
in the French army, sent three heralds to offer him battle, 
leaving him to choose the time and place. Henry replied, 
as he had been long upon his march to Calais, they might 
have fought him when they pleased ; and if they intended 
it, there was no occasion to appoint a time or place ; for he 
was resolved to pursue his march, and they should always 
find him ready to received them."f Thus the French army 
being posted on his route, it was not possible to pass without 
fighting ; he resolved therefore to prepare for battle. On 
the 22nd October the French generals sent him word by a 
herald, that on the Friday following, October 25th they 
would give him battle. Henry who had already taken his 
resolution, accepted the challenge, and in token of the cor- 
diality with which he received his welcome tidings, with 
that royal munificence which so signally graced his cha- 
racter, he presented the herald with a rich robe and two 
hundred crowns." During the three days before the battle, 
Henry never ceased to inspire his troops with courage, by 

* The French historians affirm that Henry seeing himself in this sad 
condition, offered to restore Harfleur, and repair all damages he had caused in 
France since his landing, if he might be suffered to proceed unmolested ; but 
that his offer was rejected.— Rapin. 

t Kapin. 



THE LADY GWLADTS. 427 

the promise of rewards and honours, and by all other means 
conducive to that end. He represented to them the glory 
of their ancestors, who obtained the victories of Cressy and 
Poictiers, and demonstrated to them the necessity of con- 
quering their enemies in order to free themselves from their 
present and avoid still greater miseries. " His exhortations 
wrought so wonderful an effect, that the officers and soldiers, 
far from dreading the number of their foes, were extremely 
eager to engage." It was at this period that the father of 
the lady of our memoir again comes under public notice. 
On the day previous to the battle of Agincourt, news being 
brought to the king that the French army were on the 
march towards him, and that they were exceedingly nume- 
rous, he detached CaptainGam to observe their motion and 
their review number. The valiant David having narrowly 
eyed the advancing French, found them to exceed the En- 
glish in an immense degree. The Welshman however, was 
too good a soldier to render a rash and literal account, 
which might possibly have the effect of daunting the eager 
courage of his fellow soldiers, therefore put forth his 
Cambrian wit, and gave a guarded and evasive answer^ 
gallantly reporting, that there were "enough tobekilled,enougk *L 
to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away? This pithy, / 
well-conceived, and well-timed answer, even memorable for 
its spirit and originality, had its due effect ; the king was 
delighted with it ; and the army excited by it to the wildest 
degree of enthusiasm, waited anxiously for the hour of the 
onset. 

Meanwhile the French, presuming on their numbers, and 
confident of victory, were making rejoicings in their camp. 
If we may believe English historians, says Rapin, so con- 
fident of success were the French leaders that they sent to 
the king to know what he would give for his ransom. Henry 
despising the bravado, replied, " that a few hours would 
shew whose care it would be to provide ransom.*' The 
French might well presume on their strength, as in number 
they were six times greater than the English,* fresh, healthy, 

• Menzerai owns that the French were four times superior to the English ; 
Monstrelet says six times; P. Daniel states three times ; while the English 



428 THE LADY GWLADTS. 

abounding with provisions, and labouring under no incon- 
venience. The English, on the contrary were for the most 
part, sick of the flux ever since they left Harfleur, grievously 
fatigued with a month's march through a hostile country, 
in very severe winter weather, during which they were half 
starved, and would have perished for hunger, but for-the 
prudence of the king. 

" On the 25th October, the day appointed for the battle ; 
the two armies were drawn up as soon as it was light. 
The constable D'Albret, committed on this occasion an 
unpardonable fault in choosing for the field of battle a narrow 
ground, flanked on one side by a rivulet, and on the other 
by a large wood. He thereby lost all the advantage which 
the superiority of number and especially in horse, could give 
him. It is most certain this general ought to have posted 
himself in a large and open place, where he might have had 
it in his power to surround the English, who were but a 
handful of men in comparison with his army. But by 
drawing up on so narrow a ground, he was forced to make 
a front no larger than that of the enemies, and thereby 
depriving himself of a very manifest advantage. Neither 
can it be said that the choice of the field of battle was not 
entirely in his own breast. As the English were marching 
for Calais, it was his business to expect them on a spacious 
plain, capable of containing his whole army, and where they 
might have fought at once. His blindness therefore was 
astonishing, and can be ascribed only to his presumption and 
incapacity as a general. He seems to have intended to 
stop up that narrow passage, that the English might not 
proceed, without considering such a precaution can only be 
advantageous to the weakest.* 

While the French were drawing up Henry detached a 

authors assert that their own army amounted only to jjp h"~*rirt- nnri jifty * t 
thousand strong. Rapin concluded his observation, " Be this as it will, it is ^ ( 
certain that the superiority of the French was very great." 



* The constable of France divided his anny into three bodies, and drc 
tli em up on the narrow ground, but so close that It was easy to foresee con 
fusion would ensue during the battle.— Rapin. 



€ 



THE LADY GWLADVS 429 

body of 400 lancers, to go and post themselves out of 
sight of tn*e enemy, behind the wood, on the left of the 
field of battle. He lodged moreover gO^archejs^ in a low 
meadow fenced with bushes on the right. Such was his 
army of reserve. In drawing up his forces, he could make 
but t w jo jines , by reason of the small number of his troops. 
Edward duke of York commanded the first, and the king 
put himself at the head of the second, with a gold crown on 
hisdb^lmet for a crest, and near him was the standard of 
England. In this posture he expected the French would 
advance to attack him. Perceiving, however, that they did 
not move, he sent for some of his principal officers, and 
said to them with a cheerful countenance, •• since our ene- 
mies have intercepted our way, let us proceed, and break 
through them, in the name of the Holy Trinity." Upon 
these words he directed Sir Thomas Erpingham to give 
the signa l to commence the battle which he did by throwin g 
up hi s trunch eon into the air. Immediately the soldiers 
of the foremost ranks, removing the stakes which had been 
set in the front, to resist the fury of the cavalry, the whole 
army with a mighty shout moved forward. After advancing 
a little they made a halt, expecting their enemies, but 
finding they did not stir continued their march in good 
order. When they came within bowshot, the foremost 
ranks fixed the stakes ;* interweaving and bending them a 
little towards their enemy. At the same time a body of 
chosen archers advancing some paces, began to let fly upon 
the enemy a shower of arrows, a yard long, which being 
shot by men of dexterity and strength, did the greater 
execution, among the French, as they stood extremely 
close, and had scarce room to move. The French cavalry 

* The king considering the enemy was more powerful in horse, and that his 

foot, the strength of his army, would be exposed to the danger of being broken 

j by the fury of the first charge, ordered the archers (a battalion of whom was 

[ placed in the van commanded by the duke £of York,) to fix into the ground 

. piles or stakes, pointed at both ends, and six or seven feet long; with these 

set in the front, and on the flanks, there being intervals left between the horse 

and foot, these last were secured by them, ;as within a little fortification. A 

company of pionee rs was appointed for ^j!R<*Wij}fL** <> piles, as the soldiers 

. ' advanced or retreated.— Rapin, Le Fevre, ElmhamTHattf 1 *^ 



^ 



430 THE LADY GWLADY8. 

advancing at length to repulse the archers, these last nimbly 
retreated behind the stakes, with a wonderful discipline in 
which the king had exercised them himself for some days, 
Meanwhile the 200 bowmen concealed in the meadow, 
rising up on a sudden, plied the horse with their arrows, 
who were put in the greatest disorder, as the horses sun k 
!IPn tn ^^jJLL npp ? LiP*"****" S KQMJlf ^T softened by the rains. 
The English seeing this confusion, threw away their hgws, 
and feJLju^ojjtliejr^e^ The English, 

it is said, were for the most part, forced to fight naked from 
the waist, downwards, by reason of their distemper. How- 
ever, as the first line of the French consisted of all the best 
troops in their army, this charge though very vigorous 
was repulsed with some loss on the side of the English. 
But that was not capable of disheartening men, determined 
to conquer or die. After breathing awhile, they charged 
again, with such resolution that it was not possible for their 
enemies to stand the shock. This second attack was the 
more difficult to be repulsed, as at the same time the French 
felt themselves set upon in the flank by the English horse 
ambushed behind the wood. Then it was that the utmost 
disorder ensued among the troops, so vigorously pressed by 
their enemies, who slew w ithout mercy whatever came in 
their way. The first line of the French at length taking to 
flight, (after seeing the constable killed, with a great num- 
ber of other officers, and most of the princes and generals 
made prisoners,) the English found themselves stopped by 
the second line which came to repair the disorder. 

Meanwhile Henry advancing with his second line, as the 
first gained ground, stood ready to support his men, 
who would have been in danger of being routed, if he had 
been farther off. Whilst the first body, after so gallant a 
fight, were retiring to the right and left, to make way for 
the king and to rally in his rear, Henry alighting from his 
horse, presented himself to an enemy with an undaunted 
countenance. The duke of Alencon, prince of the blood- 
royal of France, advanced at the head of his body, with 
great intrepidity, hoping by his conduct and valour to repair 
the disgrace received by his countrymen. Henry, for his 



THE LADY CWLADTS. 431 

part, marching with a fierceness heightened by the success 
of his first troops, charged the second line with a valour 
equal to that of the most renowned heroes of antiquity. 
He fought on foot at the h^ead.,oiJus^men, rushing among 
the tBIckest of the enemies, as forgetting that upon his life 
depended the fate of the army. 

The result of this battle will ever serve to prove the 
poverty of military genius in France at this period ; and 
the following anecdote illustrates how slightly some of their 
high born were actuated by chivalrous feeling, and how 
strongly, by dastardly bravo-like enterprizes for cutting off 
or assassinating the most illustrious of their foes, who 
otherwise, by the chance of war might escape in a fair- 
fought field. During the preparation for the battle, it 
appears the duke of Alencon, the most active of the French 
commanders, had conceived a very singular scheme for the 
certain destruction of the English king, as unknightly and 
murderous as ever was planned by the barbarity of a savage 
— and this too in an age when noblemen generally plumed 
themselves on their chivalrous bearing towards an open foe. 
He engaged sixteen French knights by a solemn sacramental 
oath, taken in the church where they watched, fasted, and 
prayed, during the entire night previous to the day of battlp, 
that they should forsake every object in the field to ensure 
the death of Henry, whom they were to surround, and not 
quit till they laid him dead on the earth. Agreeably to 
their engagement they now took measures for attaining 
their end, and had succeeded in unhorsing the king, when 
David Gam discovered his peril, and saw the " Royal 
Harry" with the regal crown which encircled his helmet 
partly beaten off his brow, fighting on foot, scarcely able to 
wield his battle-axe, while slightly supported by a few 
exhausted followers. In all the wild impetuosity of his 
character, David Gam called aloud, in righ^good racy 
Welsh, for the men of Brecon to come forward and savetHe 
king. - " He was soon answered by his son-in-law 
and grandson, the two Roger Vaughans, Walter Lloyd, 
and William ab Thomas, who, with other Welshmen 
rushing forward made a desperate charge, and succeeded 
2 N 



432 THE LADY GWLADYS. 

in cutting down every one of these unknightly knights of 
France. 

But the personal perils of King Henry were not yet over ; 
" the heat of the battle increasing, Henry, still more 
animated by his past danger, gave signal proofs of his 
valour, and drew upon him the bravest of his enemies. The 
Duke of Gloucester his brother, (the good Duke Hum- 
phrey,) who fought by his side, being knocked down, he 
long covered him with his own body, to prevent his being 
killed. By this bold action he was so exposed that at 
length he received so great a blow on the head that he fell 
on his knees. But his guard immediately advancing, re- 
pulsed the enemy and gave him time to rise. The king's 
danger and the wonders he performed, inspired his troops 
with a sort of fury. On a sudden, as it were by general 
consent, the Eng-lish soldiers encouraging one another, 
rushed upon their enemies, and by their violent and un- 
expected attack, put them in such disorder that their 
leaders could never repair it. Henry improving this ad- 
vantage, pressed them vigorously, to hinder them from 
recovering out of their surprise ; knowing this was the 
moment in which the victory was to be decided. Their 
disorder increasing by reason of their great numbers and 
want of room, they began at length only to fight in retreat, 
in such manner as showed they would quickly take to 
flight. 

The duke of Alencon, enraged to see the battle lost by the 
defeat of the second line, and despairing that the third 
would be able to restore the fight, generously resolved to 
die honorably, rather than turn his back, and survive his 
country's disgrace. So, regardless of a life he was deter- 
mined to lose, with a small number of brave and resolute 
persons, he furiously mads way with his sword through the 
English troops, and everywhere sought the king of England, 
in expectation of revenging, by one blow, the loss France 
had that day sustained. It was not difficult to find Henry, 
who thought of nothing less than concealing himself. The 
moment the duke saw him, he ran at him, and crying out 
he was the Duke of Alencon, discharged so violent a blow on 



THE LADY GWLADYS; 433 

his head, that it cleared off one half of the gold crown on his 
helmet. Henry not being- able to parry this blow, was not 
slow to revenge. In return he struck the duke to the 
ground, and with repeated blows slew two of his brave 
attendants. In an instant the duke was surrounded by a 
crowd of enemies, who put an end to his life, notwithstand- 
ing the king's endeavours to save him. The death of the 
duke of Alencon entirely discouraging his troops, they 
openly took to flight. 

The third line of the French being still fresh and in good 
order, might have renewed the battle, but their hearts failing 
at the sight of the present and past slaughter,* it w 7 as not 
in the power of their leaders to make them advance. So 
finding themselves reduced to a necessity of retreating with- 
out fighting, they left the flying troops of the second line 
exposed to the fury of their enemies, who closely pursued 
them. Then it was that the English, having nothing else 
to do but to kill state prisoners, exercised pity or cruelty 
according as every one was naturally inclined. The^ing 
was no sooner relieved by the Welsh from jars' imminent 
peril than three of the foremost of his rescuers paid tl 
penalty of their loyalty' and daring ; these wer^ David Gau 
his son-in-law the elder Vaughan, and VValterHLloyd — \vh< 
dropped down on the field, exhausted with their s\perhurnar 
exertions and loss of blood : they were in fact dyang^oXjJieir 
mortal wounds. When Henry heard of their condition, how 
that they were past all hope of recovery, he hastened to the 
spot, and deeply affected with the agonies of these brave 
men, kni^hj.ed-thaj.h^reeon the field, where they soon after- 
wards expired. "****~ ws ^*»«,- 

One event connected with this battle will ever remain a 
subject of regret, a massacre of a portion of the French 
prisoners, related at large in Rapin, who thus remarks on 
the untoward circumstance. *' It is a pity so glorious a 
victory was sullied by this rash massacre. It may however 
be excused, by the impossibility of the English being able 



* Or rather when they observed the English horse, by King Henry's order 
wheeled off to charge them in the rear. — Polydore Virgil. 



434 THE LADY GWLADYS. 

to guard their prisoners,* and by the king's just fears, that 
these same prisoners would turn against him, during the 
fight, which he saw himself on the point of renewing." 

After the battle the king's first care was to return thanks 
to God for so signal and unexpected a victory. The fight 
began at ten o'clock in the morning, and lasted till almost 
five in the afternoon. Henry not thinking proper to con- 
tinue his march, for fear of fatiguing his army too much re- 
turned to Masconcelles, where he had encamped the fore- 
going night.f 

However glorious and flattering this unparalleled victory 
might be to national pride, it was a mournful day to the 
kindred of the slain, to view the vacant places at the family 
hearths, where fathers, sons, and brothers were wont to be 
assembled at the social meal or evening meeting ; and to 
none more than to the unhappy Gwladys, when she learnt 
from the lips of her weeping son that both her husband and 
her father had fallen on the field of Agincourt, and never 
could greet her sight again, nor their voices fill her ear ! 
The bearer of these dismal tidings, her third and youngest 
son, now bore the title of Sir Roger Vaughan, having like 
his renowned grandfather and father been created Knight 
Banneret on the field of battle ; thus, both his mother and 
his wife respectively became entitled to the honour of being 
styled Lady Vaughan ; the first of Bredwardine, and the 
latter of Tretower. 

Both these ladies were destined soon after to lose their 
designations ; the younger lady Vaughan, soon after the 

* According to J. des Ursins, they amounted to fo urteen thousand ; and 
consequently equalled, or rather exceeded in number aft*fne English forces. H^ 

f In a note to Rapin's records of this battle it is stated, " the curious reader 
may see an account of all the remarkable persons slain or taken prisoners in 
this battle, in Jean Le Fevre, who says he was in the English army. He states 
that in all there were ten tho usand French killed, of whom seven or eight 
thousand were noble, and'above a hundred of them princes, who had banners 
carried before them in the field. On the side of the English there were slain 
only the duke of York, the young earl of Suffolk, and if we may believe certain 
English historians, not above four knights, one esquire, and twenty- eight 
common soldiers. Some however, with more probability affirm, the English 
lost four hundred men." 



THE LADY GWLADYS. 



435 



return of her husband, was marked for an early grave; while 
the elder lady who bore that name, the subject of our memoir, 
lost this honourable title in a manner by no means to be 
regretted, the particulars of which remain to be related. 

Among the vi sitors of condojfiflfifi to the Lady Gwladys, 
was a young man of rank and wealth of a neighbouring house, 
in Monmouthshire, who had_jilso shared the_ perils and 
gained his title and laurels in the battle field jof_Agincourt, 
at the same time with her late husband and father; this^was 
Sir William ab Thomas, lord of Rhaglan Castle. That 
gentleman was the son of the famous Thomas ab Gwilym, 
renowned in his day for his literary taste, extensive property, 
and princely encouragement of the bards and minstrels. 
The mother of Sir William was a lady of great amiability 
and considerable property, named Maud, the daughter of 
Sir John Morley, from whom he inherited the noble castle 
and lordship of Rhaglan. As an intimacy had existed be- 
tween the families of Bredwardine and Rhaglan Castle pre- 
vious to her husband's death, the merits of this gentleman 
were not unknown to the Lady Gwladys ; nor did he come 
less recommended in being one of the heroes of Agincourt. 
Therefore it could be no matter of surprise to her contem- 
poraries that soon after the expiration of the year of mourn- 
ing, Sir William ab Thomas became the accepted suitor of 
the lady of our memoir ; or in due course of time, that she 
was led by him, once more to the hymeneal altar. 

A more appropriate union than this, could scarcely be 
conceived, even in the estimation of a censure-prone world — 
so apt, by the agency of its female members, to constitute 
itself a judge and dictator of what is right and wrong on 
such occasions, with a wonderful degree of indifference to 
tastes and feelings of the parties principally concerned ! 
What greater mark of profound esteem for the memory of 
the departed could the lady have shown, than to have espoused 
the friend of her late husbanfl — a surviving brother in arms 
of the fatal fight that widowed her ! Perhaps it may be 
answered — to have continued a widow to the end of her 
days. But be it remembeied, that her first marriage was at 
an unusually early age; and that although the mother of 
2 n 2 



436 THfi LADY GWLADYS. 

five children, Gwladjs was a young widow at the period of 
the battle of Agincourt ; society therefore would be exact- 
ing too much, under those circumstances, to require the sa- 
crifice of so much youth, beauty, and capacity to an osten- 
tatious deedless widowhood, when active usefulness in the 
sphere of married life carried more commendation than good 
sense could possibly assign to the most devoted existence of 
unavailing mourning. On the part of the gentleman, the 
selection of the young widowed daughter of the renowned 
Sir David Gam, must have met the warm approbation of his 
friends, and the universal admiration of the public, among 
whom the newly married pair formed the centre of no small 
circle. 

If the appropriateness of the match gave general satisfac- 
tion in the first instance, the superior manner in which the 
Lady Gwladys fulfilled the duties to which she was now 
called, as the elevated mistress of the celebrated Castle of 
Rhaglan, must have called forth a tribute of applause from 
all parties. A house so renowned for its princely hospitality 
under the auspices of its former representatives required no 
small degree of energy, taste, and talent, to transcend those 
earlier impressions of munificence, according to the more 
advanced state of civilization, and the increased opulence of 
this peculiar family. The noble gracefulness with which 
the Lady Gwladys fulfilled her stately and benevolent offices 
of entertaining her guests and assisting the needy and 
afflicted, met an apt illustrator in the person of her contem- 
porary, the great poet of the day, Lewis Glyncothi. The 
productions of this bard, as noticed elsewhere, have thrown 
considerable light on the history of the age in which he 
flourished. It is somewhat remarkable that in two instances 
Jte compares this lady to her namesake Gwladys Ddu, the 
/ daughter of Prince Llewelyn ab lorwerth, who, as the term 
/ "JU4li' imports, was a _ r brunette ; in contradistinction to 
which style of beauty he describes the lady of Rhaglan Cas- 
! tie as a brilliant being, " like the sun — the pavilion of light," 
\ implying a fair and radiant complexion, or as we should say 
in modern phraseology, a blonde. Elsewhere, in this poem 
»he is compared to the same lady for her aim and influence 



THE LADY OWLADYS. 437 

in protecting and encouraging the Welsh language, which 
doubtless in her time was undermined by the affectation of 
speaking " the language of the Saxons," patronized by the 
Welsh Agincourt worthies, who frequently entertained their 
English companions in arms, who gained their honours in 
the same field — a martial brotherhood which seems to have 
been stronger in affection than even their respective ties of 
nationality. A3 a matter of some historical import we sug- 
gest the probability that the first strong stand which the 
^nglishJon£ue made in Monmoum^re was from the intro- 
duction and patronage of it by thej)arty to which we have 
referred. Their partiality to English politics, their loyalty 
to the English king, their union to English brides, as well 
as the marriages of their Welsh heiresses to Englishmen, go 
far to prove our conjecture; and we may especially add, 
their strong opposition to Welsh nationality, as illustrated 
in the early career of Sir David Gam. 

The second marriage of Gwladys was soon followed by 
that of her son Sir Roger Vaughan, who wooed and won 
for his second wife, the Lady Margaret, daughter of Lord^ 
James Audley, another of the heroes of Agincourt, and we 
may add, the descendant of a family long rem arkable for its 

hostility fn Wf^h J 11flp pRnd'l >n ^ A * 

In the elegy on the lady of our memoir, by Lewis Glyn- 
cothi, her state of worldly felicity is particularly emphasised, 
where she is designated "the star of Abergavenny — Gwladys • 
the happy and the faultless." Thus it appears she was fully 
as comfortable, to use a homely but expressive phrase, as the 
lady of Rhaglan Castle as she was formerly, when mistress 
of Bredvvardine ; while both her affluence and her sphere of 
active usefulness were exhibited on a more enlarged scale, 
and wider arena. 

By her second union Gwladys became the mother of 
three sons and five daughters. The two elder sons were 
the celebrated William Herbert, who in after time became 
earl of Pembroke, and Richard, afterwards known as the 

* This nobleman was slain in the battle of Bloreheath, In the year 1458. 
For a further account of this family 6ee our memoir of the " Lady Emma," 
wife of Griffith ab Madoc 



' 



438 THE LADY GWLADYS. 

illustrious Sir Richard Herbert, of Coldbrook, Dear Aber- 
gavenny ; both of whom, with their half brother, Thomas ab 
Rosser, the husband of Ellen GethiD, greatly distinguished 
themselves, and perished for the House of York, on the field 
of Danesmoor. The third son always kept up his Welsh 
designation, and was known only as John ab Gwilym, of 
Y Hon ; he appears to have lived and died as a country 
gentleman in happy obscurity. The daughters were Eliza- 
beth, Margaret, Maud, Olivia, and Elizabeth; it is remark- 
able in this enumeration of games, as illustrative of the 
English taste of this family, that none_ of them are Wels h ; 
and that Gwjjjdvjjiad no less than three daughters bearing 
the name of Elizabeth — one by the first, and two by her 
second marriage. Elizabeth (the first of the second union), 
became the lady of SirJH^rj^tradling; and her sister Mar- 
garet, the lady of Sir Henry Wogan. Maud, Olivia, and 
the second Elizabeth, were married to Welsh country gen - 
tlemen. 

There is a circumstance peculiarly noticeable in this second 
part of the life of Gwladys, not easily accounted for. Al- 
though her father and her first husband fought and died for 
the house of Lancaster, and her third son Sir Roger 
Vaughan received his knighthood also at the hand of Henry 
V., the second king of that dynasty, yet we find three of 
her sons, (the two Herberts and their elder half brother 
Thomas ab Rosser,) equally distinguishing themselves as 
the deadliest enemies of the Lancasterians, and the most 
devoted partizans of the house of York ; in whose cause, as 
before observed, they ultimately perished. 

It is true that during the splendid reign of Henry V., 
the dazzling magnificence of his heroic deeds at Agincourt 
and his subsequent espousal of the daughter of vanquished 
France and consequent exaltation of the English name, 
blinded the judgment of men as to the legality of his pos- 
session of the crown; the criminal usurpation of his father 
was not only winked at, but conveniently forgotten for the 
time, in the affectionate regard of his admiring and devoted 
subjects. But when the life and glories of that truly royal 
sovereign were closed in death, and beiDgs of an inferior 



THE LADY GWLADYS. 439 

capacity made poor and imbecile efforts to fill his vacated^ 
place, the national judgment, no longer fascinated by the 
brilliant enchanter who held men's hearts in thrall, began 
to exercise its sober functions. And when the usurpation 
of Bolingbroke came to be examined and duly discussed, 
the right of the house of York to the crown, as lineally 
descending from Richard II., became manifest and incon- 
testible. To such convictions we must principally attri- 
bute the change in politics embraced both by the husband 
and sons of the Lady Gwladys. Added to these public 
grounds, perhaps were certain private ones, which always 
have their natural force in influencing the conduct of men. 
Richard, duke of York, and his son Edward Earl of March, 
the first and second representatives of that house, and 
claimants of the crown from the brows of the youthful 
Henry of Lancaster, were very courteous in their manners, 
the most affable and chivalrous noblemen of their time ; 
as their early friendship and patronage of the family of 
Rhaglan, added to their own position of a wronged race, 
doubtless formed the ground of that family's decision to 
abandon the cause of Lancaster, and enlisted all their sym- 
pathies and swords as the most determined supporters of 
the rival House. When Margaret of Anjou became the 
queen of Henry, her unpopular and cruel persecution of the 
"good Duke Humphrey," as the people delighted to call 
the duke of Gloucester, the late king's brother, and her 
patronage of the worthless Suffolk,* made both her and that 
minister so excessively odious to that portion of the nation 
which was favourable to the Yorkists still more devoted to 
that party, and alienated their hearts so thoroughly from 
the reigning family, that what was originally a simple pre- 
ference of one cousin before the other for their king, on the 
score of the stronger claim of the elder branch, became an 
enthusiastic devotion to the one, and rancorous hatred to 
the ether. 

• The Marquis, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, was generally considered as the 
person who by " wicked arts and vile practices" had procured the death of the 
Innocent Duke of Gloucester ; and what added greatly to his unpopularity, it 
was he who restored to the French a portion of the English conquests made by 
Henry V., consisting of Le Mans and the county of Maine. 



440 THE LADY GWLADYS. 

After a long season of domestic felicity the happiness of 
the Lady Gwladys was at length disturbed by a most 
untoward event — that severe calamity the death of her 
indulgent anl beloved husband Sir William ab Thomas. 
He died in the year 1446, deeply regretted by his family 
and a large circle of friends ; and was buried in the Priory 
church, Abergavenny. 

Happily for the lady of this memoir, it was not her lot to 
experience further any of those severe visitations that make 
human existence a s'ate of endurance ; she survived her 
husband eight years, and died in 1454, a year memorable in 
English annals for the commencement of active hostilities 
between the factions who had so long menaced each other 
with destruction — those disastrous civil contentions the 
wars of the Roses.* Well was it for her that her existence 
was not further prolonged, to have experienced the sad 
reverses which brought mourning and desolation over the 
joyous circle of her domestic hearth. Well was it for her 
that the shadows of death had fallen on her eyes, rather 
than they should have encountered the bloody and petri- 
fying spectacle of the headless trunks of her sons William 
and Richard, and the mangled gory remains of her elder son 
Thomas, the victims of that battle, so fatal to Wales and 
Welsh men. f 

Gwladys was buried in the Priory church of Abergavenny, 
within the same tomb where the remains of her late hus- 
band were deposited eioht years before. 

Never perhaps was a funeral in Wales more numerously 
or more respectably attended than that of the lady Gwladys. 
The spontaneous assemblage of three thousand persons, 
inhabitants of the counties of Monmouth and Brecon, 
issuing at once from every nook of their respective districts, 
all attired in mourning habits, meeting at the bereft dwelling 
of their late friend or patroness — must have presented a 

* It was in 1454 that Richard duke of York took the field, having previously 
stirred up tlje insurrection of the Kentish men, under Jack Cade, aud thus 
commenced the civil war. 

t For these particulars see memoirs of Ellen Gethin, 



THE LADY GWLADYS. 441 

striking spectacle of real mourners, and grateful followers 
to her last home of the lamented personage who had left 
a void in society, impossible to be filled up by a successor 
equally worthy. 

The elegy to her memory, by Lewis Glyncothi, so fre- 
quently adverted to, is supposed to have been produced 
within the year and soon after her decease. As a compo- 
sition, it is- less remarkable for tender touches of pathos 
than for the descriptive powers of the poet. In this pro- 
duction he laments the death of Gwladys, whom he 
poetically styles the star of Abergavenny, the daughter of 
Sir David Gam, the strength of Gwent and the land of 
Brychan. Her piety and ancient descent, (twin virtues 
in Cambrian estimation,) are particularly dwelt upon. 
She is compared to Marsia, queen of Cyhelyn,* remarkable 
it seems for her discretion and extensive influence as well 
as the great age at which she died ; and to Gwladys Ddu, 
the daughter of Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, and ancestress to 
the head of the house of York, who in her children's time 
became king Edward IV., for the imputation of similar 
virtues. The bard concludes with a minute description of 
her very elaborately decorated tomb, which must have 
tasked the ingenuity and inventive powers of the artist even 
more than the descriptive capabilities of the poet. But 
time has mocked both them and the lady whom these tro- 
phies were intended to honour, affording a triumph to 
poetry at the expense of sculpture: and were it not for the 
explanatory verses of Lewis Glyncothi we should be utterly 
at a loss to comprehend the meaning of the mass of wreck, 
so intricate and confused, as is displayed in the mutilated 
alabaster figures, which formed the component portions of 
an interesting allegory, on the white monument of the 
benevolent Lady Gwladys of Rhaglan castle.f 

* Marsia queen of Cuhelyn the 24th king of Britain according to Jeffrey of 
Monmouth. 

t The reader who may wish to read these Memoirs in chronological order 
is informed that the next successive biography to this is Ellon Gethin ; to be 
followed by the life of Gwenhwyvar and " the old woman of Anglesea." 



'11^ 



MAUD DE HAIA, 

DAUGHTER OF THE BARON REGINALD DE WALEBI, AND WIFE 
OF THE BARON WILLIAM DE BREOS THE ELDER, LORD OF 
BRECON AND ABERGAVENNY. 

York:e, in his Royal Tribes of Wales, eloquently remarks 
"When Rhys ab Tewdwr fell in battle, the sun of South 
Wales set for ever." As a specimen of the lurid and spectral 
lights which succeeded, and " made darkness visible" in 
the land, on the conquest of a portion of Wales by the 
Norman myrmidons of William the Conqueror, we here 
present the reader with a memoir of that singular Norman 
lady, Maud de Haia (from whom the castle and afterwards 
the town of Hay derived their designation), in conjunction 
with her atrocious husband, William de Breos. Were 
there any truth in the deductions of certain old astrological 
writers, that there are stars which ray forth darkness instead 
of light, we might well imagine, in a figurative sense, that 
this precious pair came to verify and illustrate this theory, 
in the troubled hemisphere of which they were the ruling 
planets. Their career will also yield a curious view of the 
civil squabbles of that day, as they may be termed, in con- 
tradistinction to the position of open war, between King 
John and his dishonest and turbulent barons. Were it not 
for the public hatred and contempt which has ever invested 
the character of the despicable John, the popular sympathy 
in this, as in many olher cases, would be entirely on his 
side, as the injured party, and the deepest indignation 
attached to the conduct of his infamous vassals, De Breos 
and his worthless wife. 

This wonderful lady was the daughter of the Baron 
Reginald de Waleri : and when she became the wife of 
William de Breos, she brought him, as part of her dowry, 
the manor of Tetbury, in Gloucestershire. Theophilus 
Jones in his History of the Town and County of Breck- 



MAUD »£ HAIA. 443 

nock, to which work we are principally indebted for these 
materials of her memoirs, states thus of her : — 

u This lady is the^emiramis of Breconshire ; she is 
called in the pedigrees, as well as in King John's letter or 
manifest, Maud de Haia, either from her having rebuilt the 
castle (Hay Castle), or from its being principally the place 
of her residence ; most likely for the former reason, for 
within the limits of the county of Brecon she is an ubi- 
quarian. Under the corrupted name of Mol Walbce (in 
certain extravagant tales), we have her c^sTT^fone very- 
eminence, and her feats are traditionally narrated in every 
parish. She built, say the gossips, the castje oX»|i$£ i* 1 
one night, the stones for which she carried in her apron. 



tile she was thus employed, a small pebble of about nine 
feet long, and one foot thick, dropped into her shoe ; Tins 
trifling inconvenience she did not at first regaroVout in a 
short time finding it troublesome, she indignantly threw it 
over the river Wye into Llowes churchyard, in Radnorshire, 
about three miles off, where it remains to this day, precisely 
in the position it fell, a stubborn memorial of the historical 
fact, to the utter confusion of all sceptics and unbelievers.* 
Peter Roberts, in his " Cambrian Popular Antiquities," thus 
suggests the probable origin of the corrupted term of Moll 
Walbee. " As Maud was dej^sjtejl.J^^Jie Welsh,- they 
may have given her the title of a fury; but the part of the 
tradition relative to the pf-bble, and building castles, mu3t 
be of much higher antiquity ; as in many places of North 
Wales, where there are heaps of rude stones^ajwi tch is said t o. 
have carried them in her apron. As those stones generally 
formed parts of enclosures, the original name was, perhaps, 
Malaen y Walva, or the Fury of the Enclosure, as the 
ignorant frequently attribute structures which have anything 
formidable and astonishing in their appearance to the work 
of evil spirits." Theophilus Jones suggests that the fable 
of her carrying the stones and completing the castle of 

* Not far from Dolgelly, upon the road to Machynlleth, there are three 
large stones called the three pebbles. The tradition concerning these is, that 
the giant Idris, whose residence was on the Cadair Idris mountains, finding 
them troublesome in his shoe, as he was walking, threw them down there. 



aiU/4 



444 MAUD DE HAIA. 

Hay in one night, means that she collected or rather ex- 
torted from her tenants a sum sufficient for the purpose in 
a very short time ; and adds, " it is ve/^xtraordinary what 
could have procured Maud this more ihcm mortal celebrity." 
She was no doubt a woman of masculine understanding 
and spirit, yet her explmts_ifl J3xfeeoRshire, where she is so 
famous, are not detailed either by history or tradition, 
excepJLi n the ^ pJuToTja le Jj us t related. King John in his 
declaration against William aVBreos, seem^ia^st pretty 
clearly that the grey mare was the better horse ; and it is 
evident whatever nermenTs "or ""fteTrrerHs may have been, 
2 that she had considerable interest and influence in this 
county, as her name, though corrupted, is familiar to every 
peasant, while her husband's is unknown, or known only 
to be detested. 

The rest of Maud de Haia's life is entirely free from the 
alloy of fable, and may be said to be purely historical. 
But as the records of her are so interwoven with the life of 
her atrocious husband, that as the latter is very eventful 
it is necessary to give both together. On the death of his 
brother Philip, without issue, his immense property in 
Ireland fell to the already wealthy William de Breos. 
" While he dwelt at the castle of Abergavenny," Theophilus 
Jones says, " he and his murdering ministers involved 
themselves in such a scene of butchery, as, fortunately for 
mankind, has seldom been paralleled. 

Pity, like a new born babe, 

Striding tbe blast, or heaven's cberubim horsed 

Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye." 

And while it is with pain the historian records this tale 
of blood, he may, perhaps, be pardoned if he expresses a 
satisfaction in consigning the memory of this hypocritical 
villain to perpetual infamy. 

About five years previous to this time the castle of 
Abergavenny had been delivered by the treachery of the 
officers of the king of England into the hands of Sitsyllt 
ab Dy venwald and Ienan ab Ririd, two noblemen of Gwent, 



MAUD DE HAIA. 445 

after which a warfare ensued between them and Henry IL, 
was terminated in the year 1176, the castle restored to 
William de Breos, and Sitsyllt, as the associate of Ririd, 
received the king's pardon, through the intercession of 
Rhys ab Griffith, lord of Dinas-vawr. It was to con- 
gratulate Rhys upon this reconciliation, according to 
Powell and the Welsh chronicles, though Lord Lyttleton 
says it was to notify to Sitsyllt and his adherents an act 
of the English parliament prohibiting from wearing arms, 
or offensive weapons, that they became the guests of 
William de Breos, at his castle of Abergavenny. At first 
they were treated with the hospitality they expected^ but 
in the midst of their conviviality their host, either frorn^ a 
design to provoke a quarrel, or in obedience to the in- 
structions of his master, the king of England, made them 
the degrading proposal of surrendering their weapons, and 
submitting, without the power of defence, to his will. To 
this the Britons with indignation refused to accede ; where- 
upon the assassin gave the signal to his myrmidons, who 
rushing into the room like incarnate demons, butchered the 
unsuspecting and unarmed Welshmen to a man. Not 
satisfied with this, they accompanied their employer to 
Sitsyllt's house in the neighbourhood of Abergavenny,* 
where taking his wife prisoner, they murdered her son 
Cadwalader before her face, and set fire to the mansion. 
Lord Lyttleton mentions this horrid transaction with great 
coolness of temper, without even expressing his indignation 
at the dreadful scene, though he seems to be rather surprised 
that Henry II. did not notice it ; while Giraldus Cambrensis 
hints that it was perpetrated by the orders of the English 
monarch. But the measure of this monster's iniquity was 
not yet full, though he never afterwards had an opportunity 
of converting his castle into a slaughter house and mur- 
dering en masse. About the year 1198 we find him using 
the same artful and nefarious Stratagem to entrap a chieftain 
of Breconshire, against whom he entertained a secret 

* This house is on the grounds of Sir Benjamin Hall, near his noble mansion of 
Hanover; an interesting relic of ancient times, and a stern memorial of the 
deeds of blood here transacted and above recorded. 



445 MAUD DE HArA» 

grudge. Trabaexri Vychan, lord of Llangorse, was invited 
to meet him, to eoaJer ill a friendly manner on business. 
Unsuspicious of treachery, and, of course, unprepared for 
defence, tbe descendant of Caradoc of the brajyjpjr arm 
instantly determined to attend to the request, or obey the 
command of bis powerful neighbour and superior. While 
on tbe journey he was met on the road by William de Breos, 
not far from Brecon, who ordered his bloodhounds to seize 
him. By his commands they tied him to a horse's tail, 
and in that situation ignoininiously and cruelly dragged 
him through the streets of Brecon ; after which he had 
him beheaded, and suspended upon a gallows for three days. 
Repeated acts of cruelty, tyranny, and oppression, will 
make even cowards brave. How wild and implacable then 
must have been the resentment of the Welsh, a people 
brave and irascible, bred upon their mountains, the indi- 
genous children of Freedom? The castle of Abergavenny 
was unable to withstand the fury of the men of Gwent, 
who levelled it with the ground ; and the whole garrison 
left there by De Breos were either killed or taken prisoners. 
They next assailed the fortress of Dingatston, near Mon- 
mouth, belonging to one of his partizans, and reduced it to 
a heap of ashes. Upon the assassination of Trahaern, 
Gwenwynwyn, prince of Powys, who was connected with 
his family by marriage, determined to avenge that chief- 
tain's death. Accordingly, with a strong army he entered 
into Elvel, in Radnorshire, and laid siege to Painscastle 
in that district, then the property of William de Breos. 
Gwenwynwyn vowed that he would reduce to ashes the 
whole country from thence to the Severn ; a sacrifice, as 
he conceived, too small to the manes of his butchered 
kinsman. Gwenwynwyn, however, was not successful; 
the want of miners, and the insufficiency of his implements 
of attack, delayed his operations till the besieged were 
reinforced by troops from England; added to which 
Griffith ab Rhys, lord of South Wales, joined the English 
against him. A most bloody engagement took place, in 
which the prince of Powys was defeated. Matbew Paris 
says, this battle was fought before Maud's Castle, called 



MAUD DE HAlA. 447 

by Camden the castle of Matilda in Colwen ; and he tells 
us that three thousand seven hundred Welshmen fell in 
that combat. Thus escaped, for a while, th e cruel and 
oppressive lord of Brecknock ; but short-lived was hi* 
triumph. 

We next find him a prisoner to King John, in the 
year 1202; while, strange to say, supporting the righteous 
cause of young Arthur, the lawful heir to the crown. 
From this imprisonment the usurper John soon released 
him ; but ever after continued suspicious of him, though he 
loaded him with favours during the first four or five years of 
his reign. Upon the breaking out of the war between John 
and his barons, the king demanded the children of De Breos 
as hostages for his fidelity. Upon this occasion his wife, 
Maud de Haia, whom some of our chroniclers call a 
malapert woman, desired the king's messengers who made 
the application, to inform their master that she would not 
trust her children to one who had murdered his own 
nephew. This answer, which was more spirited than 
prudent, so enraged the king that her husband was in- 
stantly banished the realm, an,d his property declared 
confiscated for the use of the crown. 

Theophilus Jones has here presented us with a valuable 
document containing the complaints of John against William 
de Breos, which, he observes, as they were never contra- 
dicted, there is no reason to disbelieve. This is the more 
interesting as it places that unpopular king in the light of 
an injured party, and truly merciful amidst the most 
galling provocations to severity ; such, indeed, as no land- 
lord in ordinary life would endure from a shuffling dishonest 
tenant ; nor under such circumstances, extend to him half 
the indulgences accorded by King John. Jones says, "as 
the memorial is in fact a history of the latter years of this 
baron's life, I trust no apology is necessary for its insertion 
here nearly at length, or, at least, preserving the whole of 
its material points. The first grievance recited by the king 
is, that William owed him on his (John's) departure for 
Normandy five thousand marks for the province of Munster, 
demised to him by the crown, for which he paid no rent for 
2o2 



448 MAUD DE HAIA. 

five years. He also owed five years' rent for the city of 
Limerick; of this sum he only paid or accommodated the king 
with a hundred pounds at Rouen on account. As to the 
debt due for Minister, several terms were assigned on 
which he was required to pay it, yet he neglected to attend 
to them. Wherefore, after five years' neglect of payment, 
according to the custom of England and the law of the 
exchequer, it was resolved that his goods should be dis- 
trained, until he made satisfaction for his debt to the crown. 
But the delinquent having by some means obtained infor- 
mation of what was intended, caused all his property to be 
removed out of the way, so that no effects could be found 
upon which the distress could be made. Orders were, there- 
fore, sent to Gerard de Athiis, the king's bailiff in Wales, 
that William's goods and chattels in that country should 
be distrained till the debt was paid. Alarmed at this de- 
termination, his wife, Matilda de Haia, his nephew, William 
Earl Ferrars, Adam de Porter, who married his sister, and 
many of his friends met the king at Gloucester, and re- 
quested that William might be permitted to have an inter- 
view with his majesty; who coming to Herfeord in the 
me n time, received possession from De Breos of his castles 
of Hay, Brecknock, and Radnor ; to be held by the crown, 
unless the debt was paid on a day appointed by himself. 
And besides, as hostages for his punctuality, he delivered up 
to the king two sons of William de Breos the younger, a 
son of Reginald de Breos, and four sons of his tenants. 
Yet, notwithstanding this, he paid no more attention to the 
present than to his former engagements ; for in a little 
while afterwards, when Gerard de Athiis commanded the 
constables of the castles surrendered by De Breos to the 
king, to collect the customary payment for the use of the 
crown, finding that the officers to whom the care and custody 
of those forts had been committed were then absent, he 
came with William de Breos the younger, Reginald and 
their sons, and a vast multitude of people, and laid siege to 
those three fortresses in one day. And though he did not 
meet with the success he expected, yet he burnt one half of 
the town of Leominster, a cell belonging to the abbey of 



MAUD DE HAIA. 449 

Reading, held under the crown in free alms, and wounded 
and slew most of the king's ministers there. When Gerard 
de Athiis heard this, having collected together as many of 
the king's subjects as the time would permit, he marched to 
the relief of the besieged places ; whereupon William de 
Breos instantly retreated, and fled into Ireland with his 
wife and family. There they were hospitably received by 
William Marshal and Walter de Laci, although both of them 
had been commanded, on their allegiance, not to entertain 
or maintain the enemies of the king of England, who might 
fly thither to avoid payment of the debts due to their sove- 
reign. Afterwards they sent to the king, and undertook 
that William should appear before him on a certain day, 
to answer for his debt and the outrages he had committed ; 
and in case of his neglecting so to do, they engaged to send 
him out of Ireland, and never to receive him again ; yet 
neither he nor they kept their word. It was now deter- 
mined no longer to suffer these excesses with impunity ; 
and the king having collected his army, resolved to embark 
for Ireland to punish his rebellious su jects. But before 
his majesty could reach the place of his destination, William 
de Breos went to the king's bailiff in Ireland and petitioned 
for letters of safe conduct to enable him to make his peace 
with his lawful sovereign. These were granted, on his 
being sworn to proceed without loss of time to meet the 
king, without any circuity in his route, or turning out of 
his road either to the right or left. Yet, when he arrived 
in England, as his family were then in Ireland, he im- 
mediately proceeded to Herefordshire, and collected as 
many of the king's enemies as he could prevail upon to 
join his standard, and to espouse his quarrel. When the 
king heard this, in the course of his voyage, being then 
upon the Irish sea, he determined to come on shore at 
Pembroke. Here he was again solicited by De Breos's 
nephew, William, Earl Ferrars, that he might be permitted 
to speak to his uncle, to know his intentions. This was 
likewise granted, and one Robert de Burgate, a knight of 
the household, directed to accompany him, who returning, 
begged leave that William de Breos might once more be 



450 MAUD DE HAIA. 

suffered to approach the royal presence, which wa3 allowed 
him. He then came as far as the water of Pembroke 
(Milford Haven), and offered by his messengers forty 
thousand marks to be restored unto peace and favour. 
"Yet we," says John, "knew full well that it is not in 
hit power, but his wife's, who was in Ireland, to satisfy 
the debt due to us ; and, therefore, we sent to inform him 
that we were about to sail for Ireland, and that if he was 
in earnest, we would accompany and supply him with a 
safe conduct or passport for that kingdom, to enable him 
to talk to his wife and friends about the amount of the fine 
he was to pay, and the ratification of the terms to be agreed 
upon. And we further undertook, that if we could not 
agree upon those terms, we would send him to the same 
spot in Wales on which he then stood, and in the same 
condition." These reasonable proposals were rejected by 
De Breos, who remained in the principality doing all the mis- 
chief he could to the king and his subjects : gratifying his ma- 
lignity by burning a mill and setting fire to three cottages. 

In the meantime, Maud de Haia hearing of the king's 
expedition to Ireland, fled to jScjotfand, where she was taken 
priso ner by Duncan de Carv e, whom the king called his 
cousin and frie iid, and who immediately sent him informa- 
tion of this occurrence, which he received on the day the 
castle of Carrickfergus was surrendered tohim. Maud's eldest 
ion, William, his wife and two sons, and her daughter 
Maud, were also made prisoners at the same time ; but 
Hugh de Laci and Reginald de Breos, her third son, made 
their escape. To conduct them into his presence John sent 
two of his knights, John de Courci and Godfrey de Cra- 
combe, with a company of bowmen, and when they were 
brought before him, " this very Maud" says John, " began 
to talk about making us satisfaction, and offered us forty 
thousand marks for the safety and preservation of the lives 
and limbs of her husband and his adherents, and that his 
castles might be restored to him. To this we agreed, yet 
in three days she repented of her engagement, alleging that 
she Mas unable to perform them. Afterwards when we 
returned into England, we brought her and her family with 



MAUD »E HAIA. 451 

us in our custody ; and now she again offered us forty thou- 
sand marks, upon the same conditions as formerly, and ten 
thousand marks as a fine for her departure from her first 
proposal. This we likewise consented to accept, but to 
convince her that she was to adhere more steadily to her 
undertakings in future, we told her that as often as she 
receded from the present compact, she should pay a # n addi- 
tional sum of ten thousand marks. To this she agreed, and 
the whole transaction was reduced into writing, and con- 
firmed and ratified by her oath and seal, and the oaths and 
seals of her party, as well as of our earls and barons who 
were present at the treaty ; and days were at the same time 
assigned for the payment thereof- For the punctual per- 
formance of which, she and hers were to remain in custody 
until the whole debt was paid by instalments." 

The king then proceeds to state, that after William de 
Breos's breach of his engagements he entered Herefordshire, 
and burnt and laid waste the country ; he was proclaimed 
a traitor and an outlaw by the sheriff of Herefordshire, ac- 
cording to the law and custom of England ; but that upon 
the faith of this compact with his wife, he (the king) wrote 
to that officer to postpone further proceedings against him 
till the sovereign's return from Ireland. That upon his 
arrival in England, Maud and her family were prisoners in 
Bristol, where she petitioned that her husband might have 
leave to speak with her in private ; that he obtained this 
permission, that he approved of the terms his wife had made, 
and that in order to enable him to raise the money promised 
to be paid, Geoffrey Fitzpeter , the king's justice, was sent 
to accompany him (a favour with which De Breos would 
have readily dispensed ; for upon the first instalment be- 
coming due, he quitted the kingdom and left his majesty's 
justice in the lurch). The rescript then concludes by 
saying that upon being informed of this unexpected piece of 
intelligence, the king sent Geoffrey Fitzpeter, the king's 
brother, the earl of Salisbury, the earl of Winchester, and 
other noblemen, to Maud de Haia to know from her what 
was to be done in this dilemma, and what she and her 
husband proposed to do iu the business. 



4Si2 MAtm de saia* 

Maud now completely driven into a corner from which 
there was no further chance of escape by shuffling or prevari- 
cation, turned a bold virago face upon the matter, and put 
his majesty and his claims to defiance. She answered ex- 
plicitly enough that she would not pay one farthing ; that 
she had no more money or money's worth in her possession 
than twenty-four marks in silver, twenty-four besants,* and 
eleven ounces of gold. Thus neither Maud de Haia nor 
her husband, nor any person for them, ever paid the debt to 
the king, or any part of it. This writing is attested by 
William, Earl Ferrars, Henry, earl of Hereford, and several 
other noblemen, so that there can be no doubt of the 
correctness of the whole statement; so that John was fully 
justified in his proceedings against William de Breos, in- 
dependently of the malapert speech of his wife, which at the 
same time he neither forgot nor forgave ; but nothing could 
justify the horridj^venge of King John when he sealed the 
doom of this worthless woman . He had her and her eldest 
son William, the latter a father of a family, enclosed in a 
tower (built round them!) at Windsor, where they where 
inhumanly starved^ to death. 

William de Breos was compelled to seek a refuge in 
France, and to submit to the loss of the whole of his pro- 
perty and possessions : in this country he survived some 
time in the humiliating habit of a beggar ; tormented by 
a wounded conscience and the galling Trnspr ips of povert y. 
He died at Corboyl, in ISormandy, on the 9th of August, in 
the year 1212, from whence his body was conveyed to Paris ; 
and, according to Stowe and Matthew Paris, honourably 
interred there, in the abbey of St. Victor. Theophilus 
Jones thus concludes his history. " It is not necessary to 
paint the character of this monster, his own actious have 
unequivocally pourtrayed it; but is it not extraordinary 
that such a man as Giraldus Cambrensis should from any 
motives have been induced to become his panegyrist, or to 

* Besants, or rather Byzants, from their having been coined at Byzantium, 
during th« time of the christian emperors, were a gold coin of uncertain value. 
Besants are now only known in heraldry, and are represented hy little round 
yellow balls or surfaces.— History of Brecon, yq\A., p. 121. 



MAUD DE HAIA. 453 

prostitute his pen in his defence ? Yet so it is, for he tells 
us that, though as a man he sometimes erred, for he who 
sins not has more of the divine than of human nature in 
him ; jet he always prefaced his discourse with the name of—^ 
the Lord ; * in God's name be this done* — in God's name be ) 
that performed — if it please God — if it is the will of God — ^ 
or by the grace of God it shall be so.' And if he was upon N 
a journey, whenever he came into a church, or saw a< 
cross, he immediately betook himself to prayers, even though 
he was engaged at the time in conversation with any person,- 
whether rich or poor. And when he met children he always" 
saluted them, hoping to be repaid by the prayers of th%£> 
innocents." Giraldus is equally unscrupulous in praising 
his wife Maud. He tells us, she was not only chaste but 
prudent, and remarkable for her economy and domestic 
good qualities. But though the archdeacon was a man of 
learning and knowledge of the world, he was a high church- 
man, and the most meritorious service that could be rendered 
religion, or could buy the good word of a priest, was a liberal 
contribution towards the support of the clergy. William 
de Breos's liberal donations towards churches, abbeys, monks, 
and friars, detailed at large by Theophilus Jones, may well 
account for Giraldus's respect for such a villain. 

In her dire extremity, with death in her eye and horror at 
her heart, Maud was doubtless prodigal of great promises to 
the king to save her life, while preparations for her eternal 
incarceration were going on ; but too fully convinced of her 
duplicity, and with hatred rankling in his bosom, he would 
not forego his revenge, which he satiated to the utmost. 
Speed says, Maud endeavoured to pacify the king ; and to 
induce him to forgive her offence she made a present to his 
queen of four hundred kine and one bull, all milk white, 
with re d ears. Bingley, in his animal biography, describes 
wild cattle to be invariably white, the muzzle black, and the 
whole inside of the ear, and one third part of the outward, 
from the tip downwards, red. 

* Theophilus Jones says, " It is to be presumed that this grace preceded tie 
slaughter at Abergavenny ; « in God's name let as «ut the throats of these 
fellows peaceably and quietly.' " 



454 MAUD DE EAIA. 

After this select specimen of a Norman Baron and Baroness 
it will not be oat of place here to notice the origin of this 
highly vaunjtedrace, these ruthless disturbers of the world, 
the "Normans, from whom mankind have derived loTittle 
good and so much evil. 

The NonmuWwere originally Norwegian pirates and free- 
booters. They made their first irruptions on the French 
coasts about the year 700, when they so ransacked and 
plagued the maritime towns that, considering them in the 
light of the direct evils of humanity, it was inserted in the 
Litany " From plague, pestilence, and the fury of the Nor- 
mans, good Lord deliver us !" To avert their malignity 
and give them a chance of becoming civilized, Charles the 
Bold king of France gave them a portion of the province of 
Neustria, where they settled, and named their new country 

%ma nd y> signifying the land^oXJh^Jiarth^e n - Their 
first sovereign Duke was Rollo, A.D. 900, from whom in a 
direct line came the sixth 1^ then^Tfukes, William the 
Bastard, c onquero r of ,^,^^1 an H 1 A.D. 1067. 

With the exception of thosejaa&ks of Fngland who derive 
their origin from Wels^_py Sayiip pmg-pnitrtrs, the haughtiest 
of the English aristocracy are not only content, b jit proud to 
date their ancestry from the coming of the Norman con- 
queror, and their descent from his various followers, as if the 
boast of Norman blood in their veins gave them claims to a 
superiority over the rest of their fellow subjects. As so 
many have proudly plumed themselves with this blood-red 
feather in their caps of vanity, and as certain writers have 
lauded the Normans as the noblest specimen of the human 
race, it may not be amiss to examine how far they have 
fairly won such pre-eminent distinction. 

In noticing the expulsion of the Normans from their cas- 
tles in Wales, Theophilus Jones remarks : — M At a place 
called Aberllech in Monmouthshire, the Welsh again tri- 
umphed, and satiated their revenge in the blood of their 
late masters ; so that for some time no safety remained for 
those Normans who continued in the country, but such as 
their stone walls and castles afforded them. Within these 
strongholds they lived alternately in a state of gloomy 



StAtJD DE HAIA. 455 

grandeur and sulky silence, orjacuial jggbg jfoyj and from 
thence they occasionally sallied forth in large bodies, to de- 
solate the country, and plunder the inhabitants : depending, 
like other beasts of prey, chiefly upon the success of these 
kinds of expeditions, for provisions." 

In a respecable periodical of the day we have the follow- 
ing just estimate of the merits of the Normans : — " Perhaps 
there is not agog any greater nonsense among clever people 
than there is about ra ce. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton is all 
for th eNormans, as splendid fellows. "With far more reason 
Mr. Disraeli is wild for the J ews, as the race who have done 
the greatest things in the History of man. In reference to 
the Normans, we have read all Sir Edward has ever said in 
their favour and nothing remains except that they have made 
themselves the Feudal Aristocracy of Europe. But as we 
regard Feuda lism as a barbarous insjtitujion, without a single 
particle of crvTfization or beneTicence in it, there is nothing 
noble, to our eyes, in such an achievement. From first to 
last, Feudalism has been the e nemy of aU go odn ess, and of all 
truth ; and all the best servants of mankind have been at 
war with it. Feudal aristocracy, from the days of the con- 
quest to the repeal of the corn-laws, has in England been 
an organization of rapacity and a source of crime in society. 
The Norman castles are mouldering everywhere, and are not 
in a more dilapidated condition than the institution of which 
they are a portion and a symbo l. There is nothing but strength 
defending rgpd-sity m t ne meaning of these castles ; they were 
not sources of light to guide, nor of love to sweeten the dark 
and bitter lot of man. They were a magnificent organiza- 
tion of the Dick Turpins and the Claudes du Val of the 
midoUeagej^and nothing more — these proud Norman lords, 
on whose genealogies Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton is so elo- 
quent. The greatest things of English civilization have all 
been done by men of Saxon names. Agaxton introduced 
printing. A Wvcliffe and jj&was* did the best part of the 
work of r^rmation. 4J|acon expounded the method of 
experimental philosophy. In the poetic art, a Milt on and a 
Shakspere have made all the Normans that ever rhymed 
poetasters in comparison. A Cromjsell established religious 
2p 



456 MAUD DE HAIA. 

liberty ; and a Watt built tbe steam engine ; and when in 
the last generation the French had subdued the most of 
Europe, they were beaten on the behalf of England by a Wel- 
lesley on the land, and a Nelson on the Sea. Statesmanship 
would seem to be a field in which the No rmans had peculia r 
advantag es, yet the superiority of the men of Saxon names 
has been manifest, in almost every generation, from Thomas 
a Becket to Robert Peel." 



HS'7 



MISTRESS* TKEVOB HANMEB. 

DAUGHTER OF SIR THOS. HANMER, BART., OF HANMER HALL, 
FLINTSHIRE; AFTERWARDS LADY WARNER, WIFE OF SIR 
JOHN WARNER, B4RT. ; AND LATTERLY SISTER TERESA 
CLARE, NUN OF THE ORDER OF THE POOR CLARES OF 
GRAVELING, IN DUNKIRK. 

Pennant, in his notice of the paintings at Bettisfield, gives 
the following very amusing account of this lady, while refer- 
ring to her mother's and her own characteristic portrait in 
that interesting collection. " In one room is an elegant 
figure of Lady Hanmer, with a forehead cloth, in an elegant 
white undress, studying Gerard's Herbal ; and a small por- 
trait of a Lady Warner, 'a la Magdalene,' with long dishevel' 
led hair, arid a skull in her hand. She was a daughter of the 
House (of Hanmer), and wife to Sir John Warner; who not 
content with abjuring the religion of their parents, deter- 
mined to quit the kingdom, and embrace the monastic life. 
Their friends applied to the king (Charles II.) to divert 
them from their resolution. His Majesty, with his usual 
wicked wit told them that if Sir John had a mind to make 
himself one of God Almighty s fools, they must have patience. 
" Sir John became a Jesuit, and assumed the name of 
Brother Clare. His wife (the lady of the picture), became 
a poor Sister Clare, of which order she performed the novi- 
ciateship with marvellous and very literal obedience ! 4 1 am 
black but comely,' was the text of the preacher, one day, 
whilst exhorting her, in what is called a cloathing sermon, 
to humility ; expressing that she must, make" herself black 
(alluding to the Nunnery habit of that order,) in the eyes of 

* " Mistress," was the style of address of spinsters of rank, and single ladies 
generally, previous to the reign of King Charles II., at whose court " Miss" is 
supposed to have originated, as a substitute for Mistress. The latter term, 
however, was kept up long after, until modish people, in the times of the 
Spectator, came to consider it antiquated, when it gradually fell into disuse, 
and " Miss," in the course of time, became general. - 



^%<J^ 



458 MISTRESS TREVOR HANtfEg. 

the world, to become fair in the eyes of the Lord. The 
Abbess, on this, said to the poor Novice, ' you also, Sister 
Clare, must black yourself;' on which she went instantly 
into the kitchen, where she blacked her face and hands with 
the soot of the chimney ; and thus became an instructive 
example to the admiring sisters 1" 

This brief account of Pennant's, concluding with what 
appeared too good a jest to be really true (although it 
ultimately proved so), excited the curiosity of the Editor of 
this Work : and the temptation of adding such a rarity as 
the life of a Welsh Nun to these Female Worthies of multi- 
farious rank and conditions of women, was powerful with 
him. In London he sought out the "Life of Lady Warner," 
referred to in a note to Pennant's Tour in Wales, said to be 
in our glorious national collection in the British Museum. 
Owing to the erroneous manner in which this old but scarce 
volume was originally placed in the catalogue, the officers of 
the Museum found some difficulty in discovering it; and it 
was only after repeated applications, daily made, that he 
induced an earnest search to be made for it till found.* 
From that work we learn the following particulars of this 
lady's life, reduced to plain common sense, from the very 
wordy and over-wrought eulogistic style of her Roman 
Catholic biographer^ 

Trevor Hanmer was born on the 20th of April, 1636, at 
Hanmer Hall, in Flintshire, North Wales, the seat of the 
ancient family whose name she bears. She received the 
Christian name of Trevor in baptism from my lord Baron 
Trevor who became her godfather. Her father was Sir 
Thomas Hanmer, Baronet; the long-proved fidelity and 
loyalty of his family procured for him in early life the 
honourable office of cup-bearer to King Charles I. Her 
mother was Mistress Elizabeth Baker, of the ancient family 



• This volume contains the ''Life of Thomas Walsh." the "Life of Lady 
Warner," the "Life of Lady Elizabeth Warner," and the "Life of Georga 
Webb, Bishop of Limerick." It is lettered on the back, " Biography W., Part 
I." As Lady Warner's is the only important " Life " in the book, and with th^ 
memoir of her sister-in-law occupies about half of the volume, we would suggest 
that It should be re-bound, and lettered. " Lady Warner, &c.» &e." 



MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 459 

of the Bakers, of Whittingham Hall, in the county of Suffolk; 
previous to her union with Sir Thomas Hanmer she was 
maid of honour to Queen Henrietta Maria. 

When the fortunes of the king declined, and all hopes of 
retrieving them became exceedingly doubtful, with a fortune 
greatly reduced by his active support of the royal cause, Sir 
Thomas Hanmer and his lady, with their little daughter 
Trevor, the subject of this memoir, then ten years of age, 
left the kingdom, and went to France. Accustomed as they 
both were to the gaieties of the court, they naturally enough 
fixed on Paris for their residence, then crowded with the 
adherents of the king, and lodged at the house of a Catholic 
family. Although Sir Thomas and his family appear to 
have been decided Protestants, the Baronet had a near 
relative in the Catholic Church in France, Father Hanmer, 
a Jesuit, by whom they were occasionally visited. Thus 
Trevor Hanmer had before her, an example of one of the 
family wno had abjured the faith of his fathers and turned 
Papist. The Catholic family with whom they lived had a 
sou and daughter nearly of her own age, who became her 
daily playfellows, and, as might be expected, the almost 
unconscious instruments of their proselytizing priesthood in 
converting to their faith the daughter of the English refugees. 
Highly imaginative as she appears to have been, she listened 
most intently to the attractive descriptions given by her 
playmates, verified in his visits by the cunning priest who 
attended their family, of the happy life of purity and blessed- 
ness led by the female religious of their community. How, 
by forsaking all worldly ties, they abjured all the deceits 
and vanities of the earth, with which the enemy of mankind 
dazzled and won souls to their destruction; and became the 
chosen virgins whose ministry in Heaven was round the 
throne of their Saviour, and in the immediate presence of 
the Holy of Holies. Then this beatific picture was con- 
trasted with another of the most fearful and awe-inspiring 
description — the place of torments, where Heretics and all 
other evil-doers had to suffer eternally for their sins on 
earth. Heretics, of course, were described to her as the 
whole body of the English nation, and all others who had 
2 p 2 



450 MISTRESS TREVOR HANMEK. 

rejected Romanism and embraced the reformed Protestant 
religion. On the sensitive mind of a child these represen- 
tations had their natural effect of causing- the most pensive 
longings to be in the way of eternal happiness on one side? 
and on the other, the most unspeakable terrors of future 
torments. As it does not appear that the mind of this 
child had been by any means properly trained in Protestant 
principles, and armed by sound instruction to resist the 
insidious delusions of the proselytizing priests and their active 
agents, there is nothing to excite our surprise at the readi- 
ness with which, at her early age, she became a convert to a 
faith so artfully recommended. Her parents had been 
courtiers from early life, and it is probable, though nominally 
Protestants, were as far from being zealous votaries of the 
reformed religion as of entertaining a vindictive hatred to 
the ancient religion of their country. This tolerant dis- 
position on their part, however, was not the result of generous 
principles, but literally from indifference to any religious 
impressions. This carelessness seems to have been the 
more characteristic of Sir Thomas than of his lady; although 
they both appear exceedingly culpable in suffering the mind 
of their child to be thus exposed to the artful workings of 
the deadliest enemies of their national faith — the notorious 
Jesuits. The principles on which monastic institutions 
have their being, are decidedly hostile to natura affection, 
as is proved in the following instance. So powerfully had 
the tender mind of Trevor Hanmer been worked upon, that 
at length she formed what her Catholic biographer calls 
'* the romantic resolution of running away from her parents 
— and these Catholic children promised to accompany her 
— to enter the monastery of Mont-martyr, situate a little 
out of Paris ; where her want of experience persuaded her 
(says the above quoted authority) she would be received as 
soon as she presented herself. But accidentally dropping 
her bundle as she passed through the house, her childish 
plot was discovered, and her design frustrated ; and all the 
reward she received for her intended devotion was a severe 
correction from her lady mother, though then detained in 
bed by her last sickness** 



MISTRESS TREVOR HANMEK. 461 

But although her design was prevented for the present, 
she still nursed the resolution of carrying it into effect at 
some future opportunity. To show how strongly the passion 
for becoming a Nun had already taken root in her mind, we 
are informed that the very play or pastimes of her childhood 
savoured of it. Thus, while other children amused them- 
selves in more active or lively diversions, Trevor Hanmer 
found her choice entertainment in making little oratories, 
or places of prayer, and in imitating the religious ceremonies 
which she had seen practised in the Catholic Church which 
she visited with her young friends at Paris. 

The death of her mother, Lady Hanmer, happened soon 
after, and Sir Thomas made up his mind to visit England, 
as well to see how affairs stood with his royal master, as the 
management of his own private concerns. Alarmed at 
length at his daughter's predilection for Roman Catholicism, 
previous to quitting Paris he removed her to the house of an 
ancient burgher and his wife who were Huguenots, and 
without children. Thus there were none to aid her in such 
a scheme as she formerly entertained ; but how she amused 
herself, or what her views and feelings were, while dwelling 
with her new protectors, we are not informed. 

While in England, Sir Thomas Hanmer, to avoid as much 
as possible the notice of the Parliamentarians, lived in great 
privacy at the house of his friend Sir Thomas Harvey, called 
Hengrave Hall near Bury in Sussex. While here, we are 
told that " moved by the beauty and excellent endowments 
of Mistress Susan Harvey, with the consent of her parents 
he wooed and won, and made her his second wife ; and thus, 
though yet unknown to her, Trevor Hanmer had now a 
stepmother. 

" Sir Thomas Hanmer's thoughts were either so taken 
up with his new mistress, or so distracted with the danger 
of those troublesome times, that he seemed almost to have 
forgotten his daughter, who had now been above a year in 
Paris without hearing from him or of him, insomuch that 
the people with whom she was believed him dead." Her 
conduct while thus circumstanced, an apparent orphan 
among strangers and in a strange land, must have been very 



462 MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 

engaging. She won so much on the affection of her kind 
protectors, who, as before observed, were childless, that they 
were actually, pleased at her apparently destitute condition, 
that they might enjoy the generous satisfaction of adopting 
her as their heiress ; as they already " esteemed and loved 
her as their own child, and resolved, as far as in their 
power, to make her so.'' These generous sentiments in her 
favour are less to be wondered at, when we are assured that 
such was her admirably sweet disposition that it won the 
hearts and affections of all who conversed with her. 

But whilst her protectors enjoyed these views, all their 
fond hopes were suddenly destroyed by the arrival of her 
father at Paris. Sir Thomas Hanmer came over expressly 
to take her with him to England. Thus, a most affectionate 
parting took place between her and her new friends. 

On her return to England her father allowed her the 
choice either to accompany him and be presented to her 
step-mother, or to take up her residence with her grand- 
mother, the Lady Hanmer, at Haughton, in Flintshire; and 
she gave preference to the latter. 

However great her affection for her Huguenot friends, 
it would appear that she did not participate in their 
religious opinions ; for, after her return to England she 
still nursed her darling infatuation — the one great passion 
of her soul — the lively hope and ardent desire of ultimately- 
becoming a nun. Being discovered by her grandmother 
in the practices of certain formalities of Roman Catholicism, 
she made no secret of her religious bias, or of her desire to 
take the veil. The old lady, as we may suppose, greatly 
averse to her views, and alarmed at her sense of responsi- 
bility to her father, informed him by letter of all the cir- 
cumstances. 

Upon this information Sir Thomas Hanmer sent for her 
to Hengrave Hall, where she was received with all imagin- 
able kindness by her step-mother, wjiich she returned with 
what dutiful respect she was able. 

With all the amiability ascribed to her, and she really 
appears to have deserved much of the praise so liberally- 
bestowed by her Catholic biographer, a meek submission to 



MtSfRESS TREVOR HANMeR. 463 

maternal authority does not find a place in the catalogue of 
her imputed virtues. In fact, her passion for the veil was 
at variance both with obedience to her natural protectors 
and to paternal affection. As before related, her mother, 
on her death-bed, found it necessary to inflict on her "a 
severe correction ;" and her reluctance to meet the lady 
who had become her step-mother, and who, as subsequently 
proved, was as exemplary in that unpopular relationship as 
possible, appears in her perverse refusal to be introduced to 
her father's "second choice," and preferring to live with 
her grandmother. The above expression that she returned 
the " all possible kindness 1 ' of the second Lady Hanmer 
with what dutiful respect and affection she was able, certainly 
implies that her prejudices gave those feelings a very limited 
circulation. However, this lady, with her super-sublimated 
reputation for almost every possible Christian virtue, can 
well afford this slight drawbac ? on her claims to absolute 
perfection; and the demands of truth really call for these 
comments. But the principles on which monastic institu- 
tions have their existence are altogether at variance with 
those of natural affection and filial obedience, as is amply 
proved in this instance. Here we have a young lady, 
yielding in early youth to the artful persuasions of designing 
priests and their agents, who is so far ready, willing, nay, 
vehemently anxious, to forsake the home of her childhood, 
with the tender associations of paternal affection, -without a 
sigh or the slightest accompaniment of regret. 

With very commendahle consideration for her father's 
reduced circumstances, from the sequestration of his plentiful 
estate by the Parliamentarians, she told him she would 
dispense with the charges of keeping a servant. She had 
other, and as she considered, higher views in this arrange- 
ment than mere economy. By undergoing the fatigue of 
such domestic labours she practised a lesson of humility, 
and at the sime time inured herself to such hardships as 
might prepare her for her future monastic capacity; which 
she had long determined should be her ultimate destination. 
Accordingly, some time after, when her father came in 
suddenly, he found her on her knees, assiduously scrubbing 



464 MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 

the floor of her chamber, and perspiring with her laborious 
exertions. Without being aware of her secret object, 
Sir Thomas was greatly affected at what he considered 
such a touching instance of conforming herself to his 
reduced circumstances ; " and taking her in his arms with 
tears in his eyes, he protested his belief that God would 
one day give her an especial blessing for conducting herself 
after so particular a manner, and so meekly yielding to 
those unhappy events which His providence and her kind- 
ness to himself had reduced her." 

The national troubles as well as his own private incon- 
veniences increasing, that his family might not be too 
troublesome to his father-in-law, Sir Thomas Hanmer 
determined on living altogether with his mother, wife, 
and daughter, at Haughton, where before he had only 
been an occasional visitor ; but their residence there was 
of short duration, for Sir Thomas Harvey soon urged their 
return to his mansion of Hengrave Hall, which kind and 
seasonable invitation they immediately accepted. 

Her father and step-mother having now left them, Trevor 
Hanmer was once more left with her grandmother, and now, 
in comparative solitude, she eagerly nursed her passion for 
the life of a nun. It was at this time that she commenced 
the practice of those mortifications which form so dis- 
tinguishing a feature in the character of a Catholic devotee, 
as a prelude to any future austerities she might be called 
upon to exercise. She began to fast once a week, abstaining 
from meat and drink till nigh . She rose constantly at 
midnight to her prayers, and in the day-time, notwith- 
standing the expostulations of her woudering grandmother, 
exercised such labours and humble offices as are usually 
performed hy a servant ; and to evade the observations and 
discussions which such peculiarities might induce, she de- 
clared that she found them beneficial to her health. 

Remarking on her general habits, her Catholic biographer 
says : — " She had her time hourly regulated, from morning 
till night, a method she began to practice before she left 
France, and never after omitted. She was so exceedingly 
industrious, that whatever she undertook she never failed to 



MI3TRESS TREVOR HANMER. 465 

accomplish.'' As a proof of her perseverance she learnt the 
French language without the aid of a master, and acquired 
a sufficient knowledge of the Italian and Spanish as " to 
understand any book." 

After a prolonged visit at Hengrave Hall, we find Sir 
Thomas Hanmer and his lady at Lensham, where they had 
retired on account of its short distance from London ; from 
thence they wrote to Trevor, to require her to join them. 
Agreeable to her usual promptitude, she immediately took 
her departure from Wales, and found her father alone at 
Lensham, Lady Hanmer not having arrived yet from 
Suffolk. The execution of King Charles, and the banish- 
ment of the Cavaliers, having now cast the deepest gloom on 
all the royalists, Sir Thomas was in a state of deep grief and 
despondency. 

It was at this juncture, and while he was in this softened 
mood, that she resolved on using her endeavours to bring 
the subject of her long-nursed desires to a close, and gain 
her father's consent to allow her to go to France and take 
the veil ; " where," as her Catholic biographer expresses 
it, " she might live securely and die happy." With all the 
energy and pertinacity of her character she urged her suit, 
and emphatically pointed out the difficulties of his own 
situation and his inability to provide for her; all which 
solicitude on her account would cease by yielding to her 
well-weighed desires on this point. Sir Thomas, who seems 
to have been an easy-going compound of country gentleman 
and cavalier, and "a Protestant according to act of parlia- 
ment" only, therefore anything but a bigot ; entertaining 
neither a violent antipathy to Catholicism nor great zeal for 
the Protestant cause, considering her reasons, as much as he 
understood of them, very solid and convincing, found little 
difficulty in giving his consent, which Trevor received with 
heartfelt thaukfulness. 

The Jesuit Father Hanmer being consulted, advised her 
to go to Paris and enter into a monastery of the order of 
St. Bennet, to which he gave her the necessary recommend- 
ations. The good father took care to ifnorm her what 
dower was essential for becoming a bride of the church, 



466 MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 

which her parent readily agreed to provide. Thus every- 
thing now appeared settled to the satisfaction of all parties, 
and even a day was fixed upon for their departure from 
England. 

However, as the homely proverb goes, "there is many a 
slip between the cup and the lip ;" when Lady Hanmer 
arrived, and heard of these arrangements, she protested 
against them with earnest warmth ; and certainly adduced 
powerful reasons why Sir Thomas ought never to have 
given his consent; but having inconsiderately yielded it, 
why he ought to recal it. 

She pleaded that in allowing his only daughter to become 
a member of the Church of Rome, and a nun, he would take 
an irretrievable step towards the disgrace and utter ruin of 
his family ; that to herself personally, it would be bitterly 
injurious. The world would readily infer that it was her 
unkindness which drove his daughter into the inclosure of a 
nunnery, to seek that peace which she could not find at 
home. That the governing party in England would con- 
sider such a decision a proof that he was himself a Papist at 
heart, and thus expose them all to greater difficulties and 
sorrows than they now endured ; and they were at present 
persecuted no less for their religion than their loyalty. 

Poor Sir Thomas, who had previously acknowledged the 
powerful reasons put forth by his daughter, now saw more 
cogent arguments adduced by his lady; especially those 
points which represented his danger of person and property 
from the resentment of the government. He, therefore, 
recalled the consent which he had given his daughter, and 
declared that under his present view of things, it was im- 
possible for him to furnish her with the pecuniary means for 
putting her desires into execution. 

Trevor Hanmer at first felt this disappointment as all 
ardent minds endure the thwarting of a darling scheme ; 
but so far from yielding it up in despair, from the difficulties 
which entrenched her ob ect, she seemed to consider it only 
as postponed for a time, to be resumed at a more favourable 
season. Besides, her cast of mind was formed on the prin- 
ciples of intense perseverance, long-suffering, and self-denial 



MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 467 

embracing the beau-ideal of mental and corporeal martyr- 
dom as the noblest objects of human aspiration. Thus, the 
temporary opposition which partially turned aside the direct 
points of her onward course, served only to dart the roots of 
her resolution into a deeper soil, to be nursed and invigor- 
ated by the very delay which at first she was inclined to 
deprecate. She submitted in silence to the force of these 
adverse circumstances, living quietly with her father and 
his lady at Lensham, for the period of a year ; where she 
led much the same sort of life and practised similar austeri- 
ties as at Haughton. At the close of their year at Len- 
sham, the family once more removed, probably on another 
visit to Sir Thomas Harvey, in Suffolk; and Trevor, to 
whom the gaieties of the affluent were far from pleasing, 
went to live with Mrs. Illis, a relation of the family, at 
Halrhey, in Wales ; there she brought with her, as a com- 
panion, her cousin, Mistress Catherine Kinnaston. 

At this period of her life, her former editor remarks ;— 
" A fire which is smothered for a time seldom fails of break- 
ing out afresh, yea, rather seems by imprisonment to gain 
force and strength ; and so it happened with this young 
lady, who being more mature than formerly, she thought 
upon the most probable means of enabling her to effect 
her desires.'' It would somewhat puzzle the reader were 
he put to guess her next step towards their achievement, as 
her plan was as singular as ever entered the head of a baffled 
devotee, or rather of an obstructed woman, fully resolved by 
any means on the ultimate attainment of her end. It was 
neither more nor less than entering into trade, and on a 
limited scale becoming a maltster. It seems her father's 
embarrasments at this time were so great, that he found him- 
self unable to give her a sufficient annual allowance to uphold 
her respectability in society, according to which she was 
born and educated. " She took this pretence to beg leave 
that she might buy barley, and get it made into malt, to sell 
it to his own tenants ; by the profits of which she hoped to 
augment her allowance to a competency for her maintenance 
after such a manner as became his daughter." This plau- 
sible pretence, however, involved a certain degree of dupli- 
2 Q 



468 MISTRESS TrETOB HAffMESS, 

city, which in a lady of such reputed sanctity, appears difn*- 
cult to reconcile with the purity of truth* But as she was 
now working her way towards a party proverbially famous 
for overlooking the means, so that the end redounded to the 
glory of their church, her Papistical biographer by no means 
reprehends, although he witnesses and even applauded the 
fact. He thus adds to the^last quoted passage :— " shewing 
thereby her humility, to submit herself to so base and sordid 
a means to compass so glorious an end as she aimed at ; 
pleasing her imagination with the hopes that by her good 
housewifery, (and success in the malt trade !) to make up 
the sum which Father Hanmer informed her would be 
necessary for obtaining admission into a nunnery. 

As his lady was not at hand to interfere, or alarm him 
with her probable veto, Sir Thomas found it more convenient 
to allow his daughter to become an amateur maltster, to 
traffic in barley and malt, however repugnant to his aristo- 
cratic pride, than to add to her income. However, in giving 
his consent he circumscribed her dealings, and stipulated, 
that she was to sell her malt only to his own tenants. This 
singular malting scheme for raising the wind, and bringing 
grist to the mill of monkery utterly failed ; partly, it is said, 
from the poverty of the people to whom she gave credit, and 
partly from their dishonesty; but principally, we should 
surmise, from the ignorance of the lady maltstress, of the 
reputable trade in which she was not adapted to shine 
which doubtless required a peculiar talent to succeed in, as 
well as the visionary calling she was so madly anxious to 
assume. "Even with this failure," says her admiring' first 
biographer, " she hoped against hope," and formed the 
resolution that come what might, she would never marry, 
that she might not thereby incapacitate herself for the 
happiness so earnestly desired. Even in this resolution she 
was destined to a failure, and to endure the felicities of con- 
imbial bliss, previous to the attainment of her grand 
desideratum — doubtless another thorn in her probationary 
crown — but which to mortals walking by the light of mere 
common sense, it would appear like marching through the 
delectable regions of Paradise into the Popish glooms of 



MISPRESS TREVOR HANMER. 469 

Purgatory ; or frantically departing from the honoured and 
reputable paths of usefulness and peace, into the questionable 
and briary labyrinths of fanaticism and self-inflicting tor- 
ments. But we are anticipating, and reflecting on events 
yet to be recorded. 

At this time Cromwell's power appeared to be fixed on a 
firm basis, therefore as his uneasiness respecting the plots, 
cabals, and intrigues of the ever-restless royalists abated, 
his severities against the cavaliers considerably relaxed; 
consequently the nation fell into its usual course of tran- 
quillity and fearlessness. The graver sort of people met 
with but little to annoy them from the officials and partizans 
©f the government, beyond the occasional infliction of 
unfathomable and almost interminable Calvinistic sermons, 
which at length became the objects of their patronage and 
the style of their adoption. And the gayer portion of the 
aation learnt at length how to endure life uncheered by the 
moralizing influence of dramatic entertainments, which, 
although the most instructive and rational of all amuse- 
ments ever invented by high talent and masterly genius, and 
patronized best by the most civilized of communities, were 
sternly interdicted by the harsh zealots of the day ; or as 
Sir Walter Scott calls them u the bigots of the iron time." 
The aristocrats, and indeed the wealthy classes generally, 
quietly watched the turn of Fortune's wheel, and whichever 
name, Oliver or Charles, appeared to them to promise a 
permanent ascendancy, to that they tendered " their lives 
and fortunes " to defend. And when afterwards detected in 
the committal of political mistakes, usually called high- 
treason, did their best to explain away facts, and marvel- 
lously illustrated the art of blowing hot and cold at the same 
time; thus furnishing the world with edifying lessons in 
the school of national duplicity. 

As the revolutionary terrors and party-rage died away, 
the little stranger Love, walked forth from his hiding-place, 
where he had so long trembled for his future existence, and 
forgetful of the past, performed his usual gambols with the 
sons and daughters of men ; and among his multitudinous 
pairings of them for the hymeneal altar, made numerous and 



470 MISTRESS TREYOR HANMER. 

bold attempts on the heart of the lady of our memoir, ihf, 
sad and world- abjuriog Trevor Hanmer. Her Catholic 
biographer has drawn her picture with his pen, and certainly, 
in a worldly sense, she was not an unloveable object. ■* She 
was above the middle stature of women, excellently well- 
shaped, her complexion not extraordinarily fair, but comely 
and lasting (that is, a brunette) ; her features were charming, 
and her eyes brown, as well as her hair (probably he means 
hazel eyes and chesnut hair). Her countenance was fraught 
with such singular sweetness, as several painters who drew 
her pictures admired, but owned their skill insufficient to 
express. This beautiful symmetry of her body was accom- 
panied with no less lovely qualities of her mind. Her humour 
was grave and serious, yet sweetened by such an affability 
as rendered her conversation no ways disagreeable or uneasy 
(meaning, imposed no restraint) ; but sought after by all. 

Recommended by such alluring personal attractions, 
added to the high respectability of her family, her mother, 
the first Lady Hanmer having been a maid of honour to 
Queen Henrietta Maria, and her father a courtier from his 
boyhood, it is no matter of surprise that she was much 
sought by lovers. Several men of rank> and who were of 
high standing at the court of the late unhappy king made 
advances for her favour; and not a few matches, very honour- 
able and advantageous in a pecuniary point of view, were 
decidedly refused by her. As she had resolutely closed her 
heart against the admission of the tender passion, it naturally 
followed that her doors should also be shut against its 
votaries ; but as some of the heiress hunters persevered in 
their troublesome attentions, she found it essential to her 
peace to think of some plan of removing herself beyond the 
reach of their importunities. At length, having obtained 
her father's consent, she quitted Alrhey, and took her cousin 
Mrs. Catherine Kinnaston with her to Brainford, near 
London, where they both resided with an elderly gentleman, 
a friend of her father's, of the name of Hawley. But here 
she found she had only quitted one scene of annoyance for 
another, as she was pestered with suitors as much as ever : 
and an urgent letter from her father to back the pretensions 



MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 471 

of Sir John Warner, a young baronet of a fine person and 
extensive estate, added to her other sources of discomfort. 
Ultimately, after some wavering between her sense of duty 
to her father, and her objections to marriage, she appealed 
to the generosity of this gentleman, urging that if he really 
loved her, he could not prove his regard more decidedly than 
by abandoning his present pursuit, and never troubling her 
more. Whether his pride was wounded by this repulse, or 
that his good sense suggested the uselessness of seeking the 
love of a woman who so firmly avoided his attentions, certain 
it is, that he immediately gave up the pursuit. However, 
notwithstanding what appeared his inevitable rejection at 
present, one of those accidents of life that can never be fore- 
seen, brought about events that human probability never 
could have calculated upon. 

While Trevor Hanmer resided at Brainford, the demise 
of a great political character occurred — the death of the 
Protector Oliver Cromwell. One of the great events of her 
life was destined to come to pass on the day of his interment, 
among the illustrious of England in Westminster Abbey. 
Although the lady of our memoir would have been among 
the last in the world that could have been drawn from her 
retirement to glean satisfaction among the crowds of sight- 
seekers, who rejoice in the grandeur of the weddings and 
coronations of the potentates of the earth, the sombre glories 
of a national funeral of the greatest actor in the political 
drama of the age, was too congenial to her taste to have ab- 
sented herself from witnessing it. Her former biographer 
says, " his splendid and magnificent funeral invited all 
people to a sight of it, and her, amongst the rest. And 
Providence so ordered it that she should be spectatress, 
with some of her friends, in the same balcony which Sir John 
Warner and some of his relations had taken, to behold the 
same solemnity, it being only separated in the middle, to 
divide the two companies." 

It appears this accidental meeting produced all the effect 
desired by those friends who were most desirous of pro- 
moting a match between this lady and the young Baronet. 
It is also evident that she was as much taken with the 
2q2 



472 MISTRESS TREVOR HAnMER. 

person, manners, and address of Sir John, as he could 
possibly be with her own winning graces and stately figure. 
And although she had formerly repulsed his advances and 
rejected his addresses, she now either saw him in a more 
favourable light, or abandoned her prejudices against the 
marriage state. Certain it is, however, that he became her 
accepted lover ; and after a very brief courtship, the long- 
resisting Trevor Hanmer appeared before the world in the 
new character of Lady Warner. 

Of this passage in her life her Catholic biographer says: — 
M Providence, that oftentimes makes use of contrary means 
to bring about its own designs appeared wonderfully in this, 
and gave her no less inclination to receive, than it had given 
Sir John to make his addresses. This was extremely 
wondered at by those who knew her disposition; nay, even 
by herself when she found such an inclination to what before 
she had entertained so great an antipathy. In fine, she who 
had stood out several years courtship from others was gained 
in three weeks by Sir John, They were married in London 
by the bridegroom's relative Dr. Warner, Bishop of Roches- 
ter, on the 7th of June, 1659." 

That she made a most excellent wife and maintained her 
station in society with due dignity, many evidences in her 
life are adduced to prove. Her biographer gives a touching 
instance of her meek spirit of deferential obedience to her 
husband that may astonish, but cannot prove otherwise than 
edifying to the wives of our days ; as it would suffer in any 
other, we give it in the quaint language of the narrator. 
" Not long after her marriage she had a singular trial given 
her, as well of humility as of patience ; which was the more 
sensible, because given by one she so passionately loved. 
Having taken a little ramble with his brother-in-law about 
the country which lasted some days without acquainting his 
lady whither he went, on his return she expressed her joy at 
seeing him safe returned home, and made a tender expostu- 
lation with him why he would be so unkind as to leave her 
so long in that solicitude, by going and staying such a while 
abroad without apprizing her of his intention." He, like 
other young men, often too jealous of losiog their authority 



MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 473 

hy too kind a condescension to their wives, made an ill 
interpretation of her kind demand ; looking upon it as a sort 
of controulment. He told her " it belonged not to her to 
require an account of his actions ; that he would have his 
liberty to go and come when he pleased, without informing 
any one why or whither he went." This unexpected answer 
might well have affected a less meek and submissive spirit 
than her's ; but she, good soul, conceiving herself to blame, 
fell upon her knees, and begging pardon for so just an offence, 
promised never more to offend in the like manner ; and this 
promise she kept all her life after. This was the only 
misunderstanding that ever happened between them during 
their lives. 

It was about two years after their marriage, when they 
had become the happy parents of two daughters, and were 
living at the height of prosperity, encircled with all the 
felicities of which human life is capable, that Lady Warner's 
old passion for the nun's veil revived, in all its former 
intensity and ardour. Instead of considering this wonderful 
accumulation of comforts in the light of especial blessings of 
the Creator, that in a pious humble mind would naturally 
call forth a grateful and adoring spirit of thankfulness and 
profound gratitude to the source of bliss, the giver of all 
goodness ; by some perversity of reasoning, such as could 
find place only in the bosom of the monomaniac of fanaticism, 
she chose to view them with an evil eye, and to deem them 
curses. It seems a misgiving came over her mind, that all 
this earthly happiness which surrounded her was a flowery 
snare, contrived by the enemy of the human race, to decoy 
her from the paths of eternal salvation. Powerfully im- 
pressed with these alarming sentiments, a veil of gloom and 
despondency overshadowed her daily existence. After 
numerous consultations with both Protestant and Catholic 
divines, she came at length to a fixed resolution of changing 
her religion. To this end she opened her mind to her 
husband, and begged his leave to sane her soul; which 
request she explained by assuring him she was impressed 
with strong convictions that she could never be saved but 
by being reconciled to the Church of Rome. To satisfy 



474 mistress tremor hanmer. 

himself of the propriety of the steps which she contemplate^ 
Sir John Warner, we are told, followed the example of his 
lady (to whom he seems to have played second fiddle, at a 
remote distance, in all things), and had numerous consulta- 
tions with the divines of both churches. 

We are also informed that although the Protestant clergy 
who appeared as the champions of their faith, were among 
the most learned of their times, and held the highest rank 
in the church of England, they failed to produce on the 
mind either of Sir John or his lady those convictions which 
could establish and confirm them in the Protestant faith. 
Such a result is by no means to be wondered at, when we 
consider the nature of the reading with which Lady Warner 
solaced her leisure, or rather to which she devoted her entire 
time. It formed exactly the sort of food that such a diseased 
mind would habitually crave for, calculated as it was, to 
increase the fever of her mental distemper, and become as 
oil on the lurid fires of monastic fanaticism ; with which, 
more or less, she had been infected from her childhood, till 
at length it became the master passion of her soul. The 
unwholesome literature from which she imbibed such mental 
poison consisted principally of the Traditions of the Fathers 
and the Lives and Legends of the apocryphal Saints of the 
Roman Catholic Church. These, it is well-known, abound 
\nith such daring violations of truth, such incredible fictions, 
respecting the monkish miracles attributed to their cowled 
and veiled heroes and heroines, that it is difficult to conceive 
a mind, in other respects sane and rational, of sufficient 
gullibity to give them implicit credence. Thus the 
Protestant divines, whose faith and ministry were limited 
to the contents of the Old and New Testaments, and the 
Apostles' Creed, could win no credit with the fore-biassed 
votaries of monkish superstition. Armed only in their 
simple honesty and plain straightforwardness, referring 
alone to the Scriptures, and the Redeemer's sacrifice, as 
the source of salvation, they were ill-matched on this 
occasion against the subtleties of the Jesuits who were 
opposed to them. These crafty worthies possessed in per- 
fection the art of making the worse appear the better cause 



MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 475 

«=— of explaining away everything objected to by Protestants, 
in their doctrines and practices; and of placing the weeded 
garden of Protestantism in the most odious light and 
unfavourable position. In the end, Sir John Warner, 
evidently a weak-minded man, and like his father-in-law, 
guided in all things by his wife, not only consented that she 
should abandon the reformed religion and embrace Roman 
Catholicism, but became himself a convert to that faith. 

Lady Warner having gained this important point, which 
brought her into the immediate vicinity of the grand object 
of her untiring aspirations, her next move, she resolved 
should be decisive, and lead direct to her ultimatum — the 
veil. With all the persuasive eloquence of which she had 
become the mistress, she represented to her husband, the 
perillous state in which she conceived they both stood, in 
respect of their destiny hereafter, powerfully urging the 
impediments to a life of holiness formed by their affluent 
position ; dwelling strongly on the liteial interpretation of 
the passage, " It is easier for a camel to pass through the 
eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of 
Heaven." Finally, she suggested the desperate remedy of 
making away with their fortune and estate, of abandoning 
all their early felicities, aid retiring from the snares of the 
world, to practise the austerities of penitents amidst the 
cloistered seclusions of monastic life. 

It appears Sir John coincided with her in all these views ; 
they determined to seize the first opportunity of abandoning 
the shores of England for ever, to go abroad and respectively 
take the monastic vows. Previous to putting these designs 
into execution, and preparatory to their departure, they 
commenced the practice of sleeping apart from each other, 
and living like brother and sister; "although," says Lady 
Warner's biographer, " to avoid suspicion they appeared as 
usual.*' They lived thus from the date of their resolution, 
the sixth of July, till the twenty-seventh of October, the last 
day of their sojourn at home, when Sir John made over his 
estate to his brother, after having arranged a limited fortune 
for each of his two daughters. 

By this time Lady Warner had become absolutely fana- 



476 MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 

tical in her zeal for her new faith. We are told " her fervor 
had so transported her that she had even worn off the skin 
of her knees by praying," and might have done herself 
much bodily harm but for the interference of her husband. 
A frantic passion for converting to the Roman Catholic faith 
all her servants and neighbours next seized her, in which 
undertaking she was so far successful that when on the 27th 
of October she took her departure from the family mansion, 
besides her two children, she had the following converts 
which she personally made, to accompany her: — Her sister- 
in-law, Lady Elizabeth Warner ; her kinswoman, Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Skelton ; and several others. Immediately on her 
arrival at Dover, October 29th, they embarked in the 
packet-boat, leaving Sir John behind to come after them. 

Anticipating the opposition of their friends to such ex- 
patriation, it will be observed, Sir John Warner and his 
lady conducted their arrangements with great precaution 
and secrecy. However, when their determination became 
known, it created a considerable sensation among their re- 
lations, friends, and the courtly circle of the restored 
monarch, Charles II. It was at this period that applica- 
tion was made to the king to prevent their departure from 
the country, when his profligate majesty gave the witty 
answer referred to in the early part of this memoir.* But 
although Charles, at first, declined to interfere, it appears 
the interest at court, and importunity of the Warner family, 
at length prevailed, and he gave the order to prevent their 
embarkation just one day too late, when that event had 
already taken place, and, therefore, obedience to it was out 
of the question; the interdiction arriving on the 30th of 
October, while they had sailed from Dover on the 29th.f 

Lady Warner, her two daughters, and her party of de- 

* See page 457. 

f This order was obtained by Dr. Warner, uncle to Sir John, and physician 
to Charles II. This modest member of the medical faculty manifested a par- 
ticular affection for his nephew'' s estate; and was very urgent with the king to 
make him a grant of it, and so invalidate Sir John's will in favour of his 
brother. Unworthy as were generally the dispensations of court favour by 
this worthless monarch, it seems the atrocious request of the venerable doctor 
was not complied with. 



MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 477 

voteeSj landed at Dunkirk the very day on which the king's 
command to suspend their departure arrived at Dover. 
Immediately on her arrival, she went to the nunnery of the 
English Poor Clares, and was greatly pleased with their 
rude fare, rigorous discipline, and hard manner of living. 
She then commenced a tour, that might well be designated 
Travels and Tribulations in search of Monastic Misery, in 
which she visited many different nunneries ; meeting and 
conversing with numerous English Catholic ladies, from 
whom she derived all the information she required about 
their respective establishments. Lady Warner ultimately, 
took the noviciate's habit at Liege, amongst the English 
nuns called St. Sepulchrine's, of the order of St Austin. 

At the ceremony of the " Cloathing," as it is called 
which signifies the formal adoption of the noviciate's cos- 
tume, she evinced something of a romantic taste in the 
choice of an euphonious and pretty name. She desired to 
be known for the future only as Sister Teresa Clare ; in 
consequence of the high regard in which she held that saint, 
from having read her life in England. It was after hearing 
the "cloathing sermon," preached from the text "although 
I am black I am comely," that she gave such a whimsical 
and truly ludicrous instance of her blind obedience to the 
lady abbess's intimation " that she should black herself," as 
quoted from Pennant at the commencement of this memoir. 

Austerity and self-inflction now became the rules and 
habits of her life ; as an instance of the spirit in which she 
conducted herself, we are told that the cordial reception 
and bland manners of the abbess and the holy sisterhood 
offended her — " so displeasing was it to her to receive any 
worldly satisfaction, after she had made a solemn sacrifice 
of all her earthly felicities." 

It appears she made a most exemplary nun, and acquired 
the highest fame obtainable for cloistered sanctity, for the 
rest of her life consists of highly coloured records of her 
superlative piety, her abhorrence of every personal gratifica- 
tion, and her enthusiastic delight in the severest mortifica- 
tions that human nature could endure. One of her written 
resolutions runs thus — "For the love of God I will ever 



478 MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 

deny myself whatever is pleasing to me, though lawful ; and 
endeavour, as far as holy obedience will permit, to do all 
such things for his sake, as shall he most contrary to my 
nature. Let all creatures love, praise, and honour Jesus, 
Mary, •end Joseph, but let me be confounded." 

From the words above, which we have placed in italics, 
we are led to infer that the monastic authorities occasionally 
interposed, to prevent or moderate the severities of her self- 
inflicting penances ; and that " holy obedience'' alone could 
operate as a restraint. That these ameliorating influences 
were displeasing to her would appear from the circumstance 
recorded, that she meditated leaving this nunnery, captivated 
by the more rigorous discipline of an order of nuns called 
Carthusianasses. But finding that none but virgins were 
received there, she at length became a sister of the Poor 
Clares of Graveling, in Dunkirk. 

Among her triumphs over human feelings, it is stated 
that she cast her picture, said to be a fine painting and an 
excellent likeness, into the fire, and rejoiced in its destruc- 
tion. When her two daughters, Catherine and Susan, were 
admitted to visit their mother, after a long absence, she 
denied herself the heart- touching gratification of seeing, 
much less embracing them. These poor girls were educated 
in the convent of the Ursulines, but ultimately took the 
veil and became nuns in the Benedictine convent at Dun- 
kirk ; and Sir John Warner became a Jesuit, by the name 
of Brother Clare. 

Among the instances of " blind obedience'' attributed to 
Sister Clare, one is mentioned, that with people of the world 
guided by mere common sense, would be regarded simply as 
a piece of silliness, -equally absurd with the one before 
stated, of blacking herself with the soot of the chimney. 
Her eulogistic biographer has evinced some degree of sim- 
plicity in recording such absurdities as so many addendas to 
her imputed virtues, which are more likely to provoke risi- 
bility than to excite admiration. One night, when the re- 
verend mother abbess went to tuck in the bedclothes of the 
holy sisterhood, it was found that Sister Clare's bed lacked 
an additional blanket, as the season of severe weather 



MISTRESS TREVOR HANMER. 479 

had set in. The good lady said she would go down stairs 
and fetch it, desiring her in the meantime not to lie down 
till she returned. Some unexpected duty, however, di- 
verted her attention from that purpose, which she entirely 
forgot ; and the obedient Sister Clare was found in the 
morning in the sitting posture which she had left her in, 
and probably almost frozen to death. She departed this 
life on the 26th of January, 1670. After indulging in 
somewhat extravagant rhapsodies on her superhuman ex- 
cellencies, and even citing miraculous evidences in favour 
of her sanctity, her Catholic biographer says '* she lived 
a saint and so she died.'* 

A splendid monument* was erected to her memory in 
the burial ground of the convent of the Poor Clares of 
Graveling, at Dunkirk, where she died. It bears a long 
Latin inscription, of which the following is a translation : — 

Stop, Read, Admire, 

Stay passenger, and pay a due tribute of tears 

To this funeral. 

Here lies buried 

Clare op Jesus. 

Her name speaks her no ordinary person, 

The noble and illustrious house of the Hanmers 

Boasts of her as their progeny. 

This star lay hid a little while, 

Clouded with the darkness of errors, 

That afterwards it might adorn the world 

With a more resplendent orb. 

She married the Honourable 

Sir John Warner, Baronet, 

But breathing after nothing but Heaven, 

She aspired to celestial nuptials ; 

And her desires being approved and consented to 

By her excellent husband, 

Forsaking bis embraces and those also 

Of her dearest father and children, 

She ceased to be of the world to be of Jesus. 

She chose this monastery 

For the theatre of her virtue, 

Where she carried the sweet yoke 

Of Christ to her very last breath, 

By the practice of all perfection, 

Verifying her name Glorious. 

She lived. ; 

And died 

In the year of our Lord, 

MDCLXX, the 26th day of January. 



* The reverend mother abbess desired that as long as the monastery should 
stand, that her monument there might be adduced as a proof that so eminent 
a character had once been an inmate of its walls. 
2 R 



480 MISTRESS TREVOR HANMEE. 

In conclusion of this memoir we shall here present for 
the reflection of our fair readers, some of whom, perhaps, 
may be infected with the romantic absurdity of changing 
their religion and becoming nuns, the following remarks on 
the conventual order, by two of the most renowned mo- 
ralists and advocates of rational piety, that ever enlightened 
and adorned our literature — Mrs. Hannah More and Doctor 
Johnson. The former observes, "Women of the higher 
class were not sent into the world to shun society, but to 
improve it. They were not designed for the cold and 
visionary virtues of solitudes and monasteries, but for the 
amiable and endearing offices of social life : they are of a 
religion which does not impose idle austerities, but enjoins 
active duties — a religion of which the most benevolent 
actions require to be sanctified by the purest motives — 
a religion which does not condemn its followers to the com- 
paratively easy task of seclusion from the world, but assigns 
them the more difficult province of living uncorrupted in it ; 
which while it forbids them to follow a multitude to do evil, 
includes in that prohibition the sin of doing nothing ; and 
which, moreover, enjoins them to be followers of Him who 
went about doing good." 

Doctor Johnson, with pithy brevity, remarked to the 
abbess of a convent which he visited in France, "Madam, 
you are here, not for the love of virtue, but the fear of vice ;" 
one of the best comments ever passed on monastic insti- 
tutions. 



H\ 



THE EMPBESS HELENA, 

DAUGHTER OF KING COEL GODEBOG, WIFE OF CONSTANTITJS 
CHLOEUS, AND MOTHER OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT, EM- 
PERORS OF ROME. 

Helena, or as she is called in Welsh annals, Elen,* was the 
eldest of the three c hildren of Coe l, surnamed Godebog, 
king of that part of Britain called Caer-collen, or Hazletown, 
which in after time became Anglified under the name of 
Coelchester. He was the son of a prince called Tegvan-glof, 
stands in his pedigree the sixteenth generation in descent 
from Beli-maw r, king of all Britai n, and commenced his 
regal functions A.D.262. Her mother's name was Stradwan, 
sole daughter and heiress of Cadwan, King of North Wales. 
Helena had a sister named Gwawl ? or Julia , and a brother 
called Cenau.f Her mother is supposed to have died soon 
after the birth of her brother, who was the youngest of 
the family ; so that in early life Helena became the mistress 
and manager of her father's domestic establishment. 

Britain was at this time a Roman colony, and all its 
princes tributary to Rome, the mistress of theworld, and the 
entire island under the dominion of a Roman Governor.. The 
reigning Emperors of this period werel/foclesian and Maxi- 

minian awfully memorable as the auth"ors~ot IWe' most dire 

p ersecution of th e Christians that ever aided to desolate the 
world, and impede the progress of civilization, of the effect 
of which in Britain we have to treat hereafter. 

It occasionally happened that the imperial authorities at 
Rome appointed one of the English kings to hold also the 
dignity of Roman governor, or lieutenant of the emperors, 
and not unfrequently some of the turbulent princes of 
Britain usurped that rank and authority, conquering and 
killing their foreign master, and assuming his office of col- 



* Elen, pronounced Ellen', her surname was Llwyddavsg, signifying the 
prosperous. 



t Pronounced Kenay. 



482 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

lecting tribute money from ^thercontemgorary sovereigns, 
which it woulaappear they were not always very scrupul ous 
in transferring to the coffers of the imperial trea sury. From 
the latter imputation, nlj, frjng HppT 1 the father of Helena, 
can be by no means exonerated. The chronicled fate of the 
different Roman governors and British princes who occa- 
sionally filled both offices, previous to the reign of this prince, 
seems almost like a parody on the first chapter of Matthew — 
merely by substituting the word slew for begot. Beginning 
with the year 208, in the reign of the Emperor Severus, 
the gory record runs, " Fulgenius slew Severus ; Bassanius 
slew Geta; Carassius slew Bassanius; Alectus slew Caras- 
sius; Asclepiodotus slew Alectus, and Livius Gallus; and 
Coel, the father of Helena, slew Asclepiodotus ; and 
was fortunate enough not to be slain himself: for we are told 
he reigned over the Britons twenty-seven y ears after, during 
a considerable portion of which period ne exercised the 
double functions of a British king and Roman governor. 
In the latter office however, he failed to fulfil one important 
point of duty, perhaps the chief, in tne' estimation of his im- 
perial masters — that of forwarding to Rome the tribute 
money whfcfr he.^cc^ected. 

The Roman governor Asclepiodotus, slain in jbattje by 
king Coel, it seems was a strenuous advocate for the pagan 
worship of the R gman gods ; and as the latter is said tonave 
been a Christian, and to have zealously encouraged the faith, 
as brought from Rome by Bran ab Llyr* (and which had 
long been working its way in BritainT^among his household 
and subjects, it may account for the origin of the hostility 
between them, which ended, as before observed, in the de- 
struction of Coers predecessor. This unique and connected 
chain of regal and vice-regal butcheries in Britain, which 
seems to have been the most approved model of modern 
Turkish g overnors, in th&xjiisposal of their predecessors in 
office, appears to nave grown outfoT tne Roman neglect oFtheir 
British colonies ; in consequence of their own intestine di- 
visions at home. Those troubles being at length settled the 

* See the memoir in tnis work of Gwladys Euffina. 



THE EMPRESS HELENA. 483 

arrears of tribute, long unpaid by the Britons, became a sub- 
jccT^ftJolmaeration with the emperors and the senate ; for 
ancient Roman authorities would no more forego their claims ' -^p 
of tribute money, than the Roman Popes their Jeter's pence 
in after ages. Consequently, within a month^offthe death ,S| 
ofkjfigjCoel, there arrived from Rome, duly accredited by 
the two reigning emperors, " a noble and prudent prince 
called Constantius Chlorus* with a puissant army ;" whose 
declared business it was, in the first place to demand the 
tribute money claimed by Rome, and afterwards to remain 
stationary, as the governor of the Roman colonies in Britain. 
The prudence of Constantius must certainly remain un- 
questionable, from that most persuasive of arguments, the 
" puissant army," which he brought into the controversy ; 
otherwise instead of gaining either of his two points, it is 
probable that the fate of the predecessors of king Coel 
would have awaited him. King Coel, how ever, seemed by 
no means flattered in having ^stew ardship questioned, and 
to be brought to book so unceremoniously. His temptation 
to resist the demand of his superior potentate was somewhat 
weighty ;— that is to say the t ribute pu rse — containing the 
additions of the successive Roman-British governors who 
had preceded him in that usurped office ; and to part with it 
thus summarily, was not to be thought of without a struggle. 
We really could wish, agreeable to the sober tone of this 
work, to treat the father of the renowned Helena, with the 
decorous gravity of an historical character, as others have 
done before us ; but truly his position and conduct appear so 
minutely paralleled by the proceedings of a Turkish pasha, 
suddenly relieved from thetoilsof governing by an unexpected 
successor armed with the firman of the Sultan, that it is 
difficult to recollect the worthy we treat of, is not one of the 
turbanned votaries of the tomb of Mecca — that he is not 
aiming at the Oriental wit of bo^trju^nja^ 
instead of obeying Elm. vVeTare informed HylhTold Welsh 
chronicle that " when Constantius, in his character of Roman 
commandant, landed his ' puissant army,' that king Coel 

* Constantius was by birth a Roman ; his father was named Eutropius, his 
mother Claudia, niece to the Emperor Claudius Gothicus. 
2 r 2 



484 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

assembled his Britons to oppose him;— but greatly dreading 
the powers of this Roman functionary, he sent to him to 
commune and treat of peace, with the acknowledgement of 
the tribute due unto the Roman senate ; on which assurance 
being given and taken on both sides, Coel died about a 
month after, having governed the Britons from A.D. 262 to 
J89, a period of twenty-seven years." 

As the Britons had been taught a few stern lessons in 
the school of Roman severity, when the supremacy of that 
great people was questioned, it may be conceived, when the 
object of the new governor is considered, that the presence 
of Constantius Chlorus was at first dreaded by the Britons ; 
especially as King Coe^haq- slain the last Roman lieutenant, 
usurped his functions, a»d seized upon the imperial trea- 
sure ; but when he presented himself amongst them, the 
public fears and unfavourable opinion were immediately 
changed by his gracious demeanour and affability. Manly, 
frank, and generous, he was formed no less to win the ad- 
miration of the gallant Roman legions, than to find favour 
in a lady's eye. It fortunately happens that the pen of 
history has recorded a few descriptive traits of his person, 
/it appears, he was tall in statup^T^tad graceful in his move- 
/ ments and address, with a /resh ruddy complexion, the 
1 floridity of which was somewhat reduced by his usual cos- 
\ tume, consisting of certain fan^iful^green vestments.* 

With such recommendations, in person, taste, and man- 
ners, it was no matter of wonder that when he was first in- 
troduced to Helena by her father, that he was well received 
by her, and that an intimacy grew between them, which 
soon after produced the most desirable results. The Bri- 
tish princess, on her own part, is said to have been very 
attractive, and accounted " the fairest and most accom- , 

/"* * An old author cites the following authorities in contradiction to those who 
{ have asserted that Constantius obtained his surname of Chlorus from the pale- 
ness of his countenance. •* Tristan thinketh that Constantius was not called 
Chlorus from his paleness, since Eumenius altributeth to him a very sanguine 
complexion ; but from some green garments which he wore when he was 
young; and he mentioneth others who had the same surname." — Edward 
Leigh's Analecta Ccesarum Romanorum, or Select Observations of all the Roman 
Emperors; published in 1664. 



THE EMPRESS HELENA. 485 

^^.plished beauty in the land," of which the "young Roman 
governor appears to have been very sensible from their 
earliest interviews. As history informs us that King Coel 
died about a month after the landing of Constantius in this 
island, it is probable that he did not live to witness the event 
most desirable to him for different reasons, the union of his 
daughter with the Roman governor, in whose power he 
stood in regard to his offences against the empire, but that 
the British nobles and chiefs observing the degree of fervour 
with which Constantius regarded the young princess, and 
anxious to close every breach and conciliate the good will 
of the Romans, gave him the good and acceptable counsel 
to espouse her. To this happy arrangement, we may 
surmise, Helena made no very cogent objections, as their 
nuptials took place accordingly. 

By this auspicious union, Constantius, as the husband of 
Helena, became the successor of her father, King Coel, 
which dignity he held in addition to his supreme governor- 
ship of this island, under the emperors Dioclesian and Maxi- 
minian. 

It may be noticed here, that however expedient and for- 
tunate this union may have been deemed at the time, that 
the order of succession, according to the law of primogeni- 
ture, was thereby violated, as Cenau, the son of Coel, pos- 
sessed the right of succeeding to his father's crown and 
dominions, instead of his sister Helena. But it does not 
appear that any evil consequences resulted from this irregu- 
larity. It is supposed that when Cenau attained his ma- 
jority that adequate compensation was made, having do- 
minions assigned him in the north of England, as his de- 
scendants appear in history as princes of Cumberland, then 
called Gwylad y Cymru, or land of the Cambrians, whence 
the derivation of its modern signification. This, among 
many other such instances, tends to shew that the ancient 
British sovereignty was neither strictly hereditary nor 
elective, but partook of both those elements, and expediency, 
too frequently, seems to have guided the chieftains of the 
country in their choice of the sovereign whom they raised 
to the throne. If a sovereign prince at the time of his de- 



486 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

cease had a son of mature age, he usually succeeded his 
father, as a matter of right. If, on the contrary, that son 
was a minor, the late king's brother, or some other aspiring 
chieftain, was elected to the sovereignty, either for his su- 
perior capacity or the strength of the party which supported 
him, without any stipulation that he should at a future 
time lay down the ensigns of authority. When the minor 
prince arrived at his majority, the reigning sovereign was 
never known to resign his crown voluntarily, but to uphold 
it by force of arms, and even to prefer his son to succeed 
him at his death. Thus the land became a scene of dire 
contention between the progeny of deprived princes and the 
descendants of usurpers, if they could be so called, who 
stood on the right of election, and who claimed an equal 
title to the sovereignty with those of legitimate descent. 
From this vicious and uncertain mode of succession, in 
addition to the evils arising from the custom of gavel-kind, 
resulted those calamities which ultimately annihilated the 
sovereignty of the ancient Britons. 

Constantius and Helena .soon after theiru.ni.on quitted 
Coel-chester, and established ^themselves in the city of 
York, as the metropolitan seat of their sovereignty. '* It 
was in this fine northern city that the Emperor Severus* 

* As there were several Roman emperors -who assumed the surname of 
Severus, it is necessary to state that this sovereign was Septimus Severus. 
who caused the fifth persecution of the Christians. In his first British war, 
according to Dio, he lost 50,000 men. Upon a second defection in Britain he 
commanded a universal slaughter of the natives, in a Greek verse, thus trans- 
lated, in the true Sternhold and Hopkins style, and our own version : — 

Let none escape your bloody rage, 

With terror let all die, 
Spare not the mother, nor the babe 

Which in her womb doth he. 

That none escape your bloody wrath, 
Let death and horror mark your path, 
To sure extermination doom'd 
Both dame and child within her womb. 

Septimus Severus gained his surname Britannicus by partially building, and 
wholly '"repairing, the British j jyall, as it was called, beween England and 
Scotland, 132 miles in length, which served both as a boundary fine and 
rampart of defence against the northern barbarians. This^reat Roman 



*\ 



THE EMPKESS HELENA. 487 

had previously t aken up his residence, during his long sojourn 
in our island, and there his empress, Julia Dorana, and her 
sister, Julia Mesa, joined him." A well written article in a 
periodical of the day, by a distinguished authoress lately 
deceased, tempts us to transcribe into our pages the follow- 
ing notice of the times under present consideration. " These 
princesses (the two Julias), were curious to cultivate the 
acquaintance of the native ladies in a familiar way ; and 
drawing around them a large circle from the highest rank, ^ 
whom their graces attracted and their amiable manners 
charmed, they saw with gratified pleasure that such daily 
intercourse added a new polish to the already shining quali- 
ties of the fair barbarians. Taste brought its elegancies, 
also, to adorn their persons, by promoting a feminine in- 
dustry even amongst themselves, to produce the beautiful 
materials. Splendid dresses were wrought, of finer loom 
than what the fleece of the flock could present, or the yarn 
from the spindle provide. Silks were imported from Italy, 
gold embroidery engaged the new-turned ambition of these 
youngTJoadiceas of the second century."* 

If Britain could boast such improvements among the higher 
classes of our native ladies in the time of the Emperor 
Severus, we may calculate on considerable advancements 









wall in our country merits notice. " At the end of each mile in the wall 
was a tower, and pipes of brass (in the wall betwixt every tower), conveyed 
the least noise from garrison to garrison, without interruption, so that news of 
an approaching enemy was quickly spread over the borders and occasional 
provision made for resistance. There were also resting places for the Areans,^ 
who were appointed by the ancients (saith Amon. Marcellinus), to serve for 
footposts, to run as occurrences fall, between the officers, and earry them word 
of the least stirring. Since the wall is ruined, and that way of dispatch taken 
away many inhabitants thereabout hold land by a tenure in cornage (as lawyers 
speak), being bound by blowing a horn to discover the irruption of the enemy." 
— Camden's Britannica. 

* The Roman Ladie s in Britain ; an article in the Boudoir, a ladies' periodi- 
cal, editecTby the lateTM i's!"BarTt)w Wilson. This authoress has not been for- 
tunate in attributing to " Julia Domna" qualities capable of improving our 
ancient British females. The Emperor Severus first espoused Martia, a lady of 
exemplary qualities. Soon after her death he married Julia Domna, " because 
he found by her nativity she should be matched with a king ; though he foresaw 
not by his art, saith Salinasius, that he was destined to wed a woman who was 
notoriously no Lucretia." 



7 



488 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

still in the days of Helena ; when the fair relatives and 
followers of Constantius, doubtless brought their share of 
elegancies and industry to add to the former stock. But 
before we proceed in the regular course of this memoir, 
we are tempted to transplant into our pages the elegant 
episode on the ladies' worktable, attached to the same article 
from which we have quoted the above. 

" It is with fond and venerating recollections that the 
writer stops here to pay her heartfelt tribute to the work- 
table of her sex ; to that modest shrine of all the domestic 
virtues ! There, unpretending industry and diligent bene- 
volence, without ostentation, provide for family comfort at 
home, and dispense the same to them whose lot would be 
shelterless, but for the care of Him ' who tempers the wind 
to the shorn lamb.' Such mothers and such daughters, I 
have seen seated round their happy work-table ; and when 
those sacred duties of the needle were over, then the graces 
of the art embellished the board ; the smile and blissful talk 
went round, and every gentle spirit mingled into blessed 
enjoyment. Books , indeed, add their varying charms to the 
social circle of our privileged days ; the discovery of print- 
ing having rendered those sources of improvement and 
innocent pleasure, common to both sexes, and for all classes 
too ; which, in_ even the most accomplished p eriod s of the 
Roman empire, and for ages afte r, were only to be found in 
the abodes of the statesman and the s age, locked up in costly 
volumes of a difficult and laborious penmanship. The lacfies 
of the era of Rome's first influence in this island, were 
therefore generally confined to learn in conversation, from 
their fathers or husbands, s omet nTng of the subjects of 
interest which men only knew now*to rea d in those rare 
books : and in this way many of the secrets of nature in 
'flood and field,' as well as of the heart-inspiring annals of 
their country, were passed from these fair foreigners lips, to 
the not less intelligent, though less cultivated minds of their 
British female auditors.'' 

About this time the culture of the vine was introduced 
into Britain; and though It migh't not produce wine, it 
afforded a delicious addition to the delicacies of the table — 



THE EMPRESS HELENA. 489 

a very different dessert to that which must have been pre- 
sented to the grandsires of the now gentle race ; when their 
mothers stood in arms, around a board heaped with acorn s 
an_d_ crab-appl es — the best fruit then indigenou s to the" 
country. 

After the death of Severus, whose ashes were buried at 
York, other successive emperors, with their families, followed 
his example in visiting this extremity of their empire, and 
making their residence som etimes at Yor k, and sometimes 
in Lond on ; for both cities were embellished with every 
architectural order of building, which could administer to 
its convenience, or increase its splendour. The island was 
then regarded as a favourite provi nce, an integral part of 
the empire ; and in all respects it seemed to share the 
advantages peculiar to its august head — of Rome itself. 

Notwithstanding the distracted state of Britain under 
former governors, Constantius soon succeeded in bringing 
it once more under Roman subjection. By his mild and 
excellent regulations he soon gained the esteem of the 
inhabitants, and became so attached as to make it his 
residence. Attaching him still more ardently to his island 
home and British bride, Helena gave birt h to the wonderful 
boy , who in aftertime was to change the aspect of the world 
from the hideousness of a ferocious blood , 4Keddmg' l 'c ,l o , m- 
munity, to that of gentleness and peace — the future emperor 
Co nstantine the Gr ejat. 

i5ut a terrible era had now commenced ; no less destruc- 
tive to their most blessed days of conjugal felicity, than the 
advent of the general misery of mankind — the peraeciifloq 
of the christian church es throughout the world. Constantius 
was called awa y for awhile, to command the legions of 
Rome, on the continent and peninsula of Europe. Although 
in compliance with the injunctions of the two emperors, he 
persecuted the christians of Spain and Gaul, his forbearance 
towards those of Britain was remarkable ; and only to be 
accounted for, from the natural influence -over.. him of his 
royal consort Helena. Doubtless her power over the heart 
of Constantius preserved the British christians from the 
destruction which attended the professors of the faith in 



490 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

less favoured countries. To estimate the extent of her 
providential interposition, be it remembered this was the 
fearful epoch of the tenth general persecution of the christians, 
which in violence and duration e xceeded any former explo- 
sion of p agan rag e and atrocity. The most severe edicts 
had been issued by Dioclesian and his associate in the 
empire for the entire extirpation of the christian religion, by 
destroying their places of worship, burning the sacred 
scriptures, and putting its professors to death. The tragical 
/description of this persecution, as given by our countryman 
/ Gildas is astounding indeed ! He states, " the christian 
/ churches throughout the world were overthrown ; all the 
I copies of the Holy Scriptures that could be laid hold of, 
were burnt in the streets; and the Pastors, along with their 
flocks were put to death. In some places it would appear 
that every vestige of Christianity was about to be abolished ; 
for it seemed, to use his language, as if the whole churc h 
was hastening at once t Q-Ieave the_S Eprld, and seek repose in 
the celestial regions, the proper habitation of the just.'' 
Unsanctioned and even unknown to Helena and Constantius, 
many of the worthiest c hristians of Britain afco fflflferp^ 
even to the death, from the savage zeal of some of the jj ulb- 
ordinate a gents of paganism. Of the British christians 
Gildas saysp^-Many suffered death; others betook them- 
selves into woods and desert places, to remain secure there 
until the storm abated ; but only the names of ,|hree 
martyrs are recorded, and these were ^oman citiz ens, aftcl 
who appear to have been persons of note on account" of their 
situation and rank as well as their zeal for Christianity. 
The one was Alban , a citizen of Verulam, which town in 
after ages had its name changed to St. Albans, in honor of 
the martyr. The other two were Julius a nd A aron of Isca 
Silurium, or Caerlgoji, where we learn ^?rom~ Geraldus 
Cambreusis, there was a church dedicated to each of them. 
The village of St. Julian, Monmouthshire, owes its name to 
the former of these martyrs. 

This awful persecution lyfo.d jen years ; and it has been 
recorded that in a single month no less than 17,000 
christians of both sexes were destroyed. 



THE EMPRESS HELENA. 491 

Although the "tenth persecution" did not entirely cease 
till the resignation of Dioclesian and Maximinian, yet in all 
places under the influence of Constantius, its fury had so 
far abated as to promise a speedy extinction. He then 
returned to Britain, and Helena had the satisfaction of once 
more embracing her long absent husband ; a happiness, 
however, somewhat tinctured with regret, for her so n Con- 
s tan tin e came not home with his father. The reigning 
emperors, ever jealous of their generals, especially those 
who were popular with the army, at this time under the 
presumed patronage of young Constantino, while his educa- 
tion was forwarding, stipulated that Constantius should 
leave him behind at Rome. It was however well understood 
by both parties, that the view of the Imperial Sovereigns was 
to keep the youth under their eyes as a kind of honourable 
pledge, or hostage for his father's fidelity. The. readers of 
Roman History will be aware, that this sort of precaution 
on the part of the emperors was by no means unnecessary ; 
as the records of the past too frequently proved that the 
leaders of their armies in distant colonies were too apt to 
play the parts of demagogues, and under pretence of mis- 
government at home, incited their legions to become 
rebellious towards the reigning powers; to proclaim their 
general emperor, and to march upon "the capital of the 
world," to receive from the intimidated and often venal 
senate, a confirmation of the honors bestowed by the 
licentious soldiery: the deprived sovereigns being in the 
meantime doomed to destruction.* 

Thus, with Constantius, her sister Gwawl or Julia, with 
her chosen friends for courtiers or associates, Helena passed 
her days for a time, in such a deep and pious sense of 
happiness as usually succeeds the transition from outrageous 

* Besides this sort of precaution on the part of Dioclesian, we are told that 
" by the profound wisdom with which he was endued, he found out a more 
assured way to secure himself against rebellions than others had discoTered ; 
for having taken Maximinian for his companion and ally, and afterwards 
created Galerius and Constantius Cassars, he rendered himself formidable to 
those who desired to make themselves Emperors. For in what part soever 
the rebels rose, one of these four was upon their backs, and stifled them in their 
birth."— Leigh's Analecta Ccesarum Romanorum. 
2 s 



492 THE EMPRESS HELENA* 

grief and daily terror to restored tranquility ; — healing the 
sorrows of the land, to the utmost of her power, by consoling 
those who were sufferers by the persecution, either from 
imprisonment or the violent deaths 'of their friends ; and by 
her counsel, strengthening their minds in the firm faith of 
the Redeemers mission. The absence of her son Con- 
stantine was doubtless a deep source of regret and dis- 
quietude ; and although assured that his martial education 
was better forwarded at Rome than it could be in Britain, 
with the anxious feelings of a fond mother, she naturally 
endured misgivings, that the principles of Christianity with 
which she had imbued his youthful mind might be subverted 
by his association with the gay and profligate heathens of 
pagan Rome. We are told that during the government of 
this island by Constantius, " he ruled it with wisdom and 
prudence, for we find the Britons great and prosperous.'* 
Prudence, in fact, appears to have been the peculiar charac- 
teristic of this worthy Roman; and agreeably to its dictates, 
he avoided an ostentatious display of lenity or favour towards 
the christians, who were at this time the grand objects of 
imperial vengeance, but he protected them in secret. "We 
have the authority of ancient authors for stating, that in 
consequence of the moderation of Constantius, the persecu- 
tion did not last above a year in Britain, and but little more 
in Gaul. 

But this comparatively serene season in the existence of 
Helena too soon passed away, and was succeeded by a period 
of gloom, and the most intense infelicity. While Constan- 
tius, happily married, and the father of a fine youth, young 
Constantine, now at Rome, continued in his government of 
Britain, the demon of ambition instilled his peculiar poison 
into his breast, and peace of mind vanished. Considering 
that the two emperors Dioclesian and Maximinian were far 
advanced in years, and apparently tired of the cares of 
governing the empire, were contemplating a resignation of 
their dignities and retirement into the peaceful shades of 
private life. He therefore set his friends at Rome to intrigue 
for being nominated Caesar, or one of the two heirs apparent 
to the future succession. His feats in war, his excellent 






THE EMPRESS SELENA. 493 

government of Britain, in Dalmatia, and in Gaul, were 
urged as the most powerful points in his favour, and the 
fairness of his claims was fully admitted by both the 
emperors. But Dioclesian objected to his nomination on 
the score that he was poor ; on which his friends sent to 
exhort him to heap up treasures. This, of course, could 
only be done from the spoil taken at the sack of cities in the 
time of war ; and in peace, by a rigorous taxation of the 
people under his government. The generous mind of Con- 
stantius was adverse to both these modes of enriching him- 
self; so that his poverty became proverbial, from his liberal 
habits of rewarding his soldiers, whence he became the idol 
of the army ; and to grind the people with rigorous imposts 
was his abhorrence. But the pleadings of ambition, how- 
ever, were too powerful to be resisted ; he therefore formed 
the resolution of addressing the people, to inform them that 
the impediment to his promotion was his lack of riches; 
and that to succeed in being appointed Caesar, it was neces- 
sary for him in the first place, to become wealthy. 

The soldiers of Constantius, and the citizens who were 
enriched by his benevolent system of government, could not 
but remember his generous maxim "that the love of the 
people is the richest and safest treasury of the Prince;" and 
that he had been often heard to declare, " that it was fitter 
that the wealth of the land should be dispersed into the 
hands of the Commons, than locked up in the coffers of 
Princes." Therefore, when they heard of his necessities, 
they are said to have vehemently contended among them- 
selves who should contribute most effectually towards the 
filling of his exchequer ; rejoicing greatly that the oppor- 
tunity had now occurred of testifying their love to him, by 
verifying the correctness of his favourite maxims. So great 
was the success of this appeal to the soldiers and citizens, 
that he was enabled to produce before Dioclesian's ambas- 
sadors the great sums which he had received in a few hours; 
and they were no less amazed at the immensity of the 
amount than the liberality of the system by which he so 
miraculously replenished an exhausted treasury. To prove 
how sincere was his confidence in such a source of wealth, 



494 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

and that his appeal to public liberality was no charlatan 
trick to work on their minds for the attainment of ungene- 
rous and illiberal ends, no sooner had the imperial func- 
tionaries departed, than he returned the subsidy which had 
been so handsomely presented to him. Aia author whom we 
have frequently quoted remarks, ** by such customs as these 
it was, that he obtained the epithet of 'poor,' rather than 
that he was so^in reality; beingfby his voluntary poverty 
richer than I>ioclesian himself; yea, than all the other 
princes together, who were partners with him.'* 

The objection of one of the Emperors being thus removed, 
and the suffrage of Dioclesian fully obtained, a more serious 
impediment was raised by the other Emperor. The author 
last quoted remarks, " Maximinian, tyrannizing over the 
affections as well as the freedom of mankind, protested that 
Constantius Chlorus should be declared Caesar only on the 
stipulation that he would divorce] his wife Helena, and 
marry his own daughter-in-law Theodora." 

These were doubtless, hard terms,, and very difficult to be 
complied with by Constantius, who had lived so long and 
happily with his British Princess. Such a union, it is true, 
contracted with the fair native of a dermS savage country, 
would be regarded by the haughty Romans of that"" period 
with about as much respect as our present ^English arlsto- 
crats would deign to accord an enthusiastic Inkle, who had 
espoused a Yarico, when a more eligible match was attain- 
able, by nullifying his previous union with the bright and 
beautiful .^Barbarian bride. But Constantius was no Inkle 
in principle^ "lbT "Tie dearly loved the gentle mother of his 
boy, and the wife of his early days ; and would gladly have 
spent his entire life with her. But alas, it is added, "be 
was won by ambition, and th^ easiness/of his nature, which 
bowed to those who seemed to wislyliim well, and by the 
lustre of the'purple presented to him?' 

In an old work, Dr. Crakanthrop's Defence of Constan- 
tine, we find the subject of Constantius*s marriage with 
Helena, thus discussed. "Eutropius calleth the marriage 
of Constantius with Helena ohscurius matrimonium ) a mere 
obscure marriage; his meaning is plain. For he neither 



THE EMPRESS HELENA. 495 

meant nor said that it was simply ignoble, but speaking 
comparatively, and comparing it to his second marriage with 
Theodora, the daughter-in-law of the Emperor; by which 
he obtained first to be Csesar, and then Emperor. In respect 
of the splendour or this second marriage, and the imperial 
dignity obtained thereby, he did, and might well say, that 
the former was more obscure, /or not so illustrious, though 
in itself it was both very honourable, and in no sort a dis- 
paragement to Constantius." 

It appears there was no formal ceremony used in the 
divorce which took place between Constantius and Helena; 
he merely left the island, and forsook his first betrothed 
and best beloved, for a season, and married Theodora. 

However, humiliating and sad the implied disgrace of 
repudiation, Helena bore the melancholy and undeserved 
infliction of fortune with a constancy of fortitude that 
ennobled her christian profession. She declared that she 
accounted it a great honour that no other cause was found 
for her divorce than the good fortune of her lord and 
husband. It is worthy of observation, as forming a noble 
contrast to the conduct of many modern princes under 
similar circumstances, that the good heart of Constantius 
would not allow him to excuse this iniquitous proceeding, 
by preten d ed crimes or fau lts attributed to the faithful 
wife whom he had so unjustifiably forsaken. Accordant 
with the generosity of his character, however otherwise 
blameable on this point, he bore all the odium of public 
opinion on his own head. But such an affair in haughty 
imperial Rome perhaps, was considered as an affair of light 
r egard, that a Koinan patrician advanced to UTS' "QatiSrsmp, 
should forsake his island bride, the young barbarian wife of 
his first romantic attachment, to unite himself more fitly, 
according to his bettered fortunes, to the highly-connected 
patrician, Theodora. Be that as it may, the latter marriage, 
like many such magnificent delusions, brought Constantius 
no happiness, although thereby he ha4-two sons, Constantius 
and Annibalinus. It was well said; " he lived in body with 
Theodora and in heart with Helena;" Ithe latter, well 
aware of the constraint which httevep his inclinations 
2s2 



496 THE EMPRESS HEI*EWA. 

in this forced political marriage, entertained the tendere^t 
regard for her some time husband, the father of her boy, 



whom she pined to embrace once n i o reV but Teare'c 
was never to behold again. The torrent of ambition 
and the distracting affairs of the world, which had so 
unhappily parted them, had no power over their affec- 
tions which ever yearned towards each other during the 
dreary years of their separation. 

Constantius remained Caesar sixteen year s ; when Diocle- 
sian and Maximinian laying down the purple and all ensigns 
of authority, retired into the shades of private life ; and he, 
conjointly with Galerius Armentarius became Empe ror. 
His portion of the Roman Empire was the western provinces 
of France, Spain, and Britain ; while Galerius had Egypt 
and the provinces in Asia. Some time after, Constantius, 
who we are told, preferred governing well to monopolizing 
to himself a great extent of country, gave up both Africa 
and Italy to Galerius, as too remote from his residence and 
*' the eye of his direction ; " as, true to his earliest affection 
and predilections, now that he was truly his own master, he 
resolved on making his favourite island of Britain the seat 
of his so v ereig nty and his future home. 

It was in the evening of his days, about the fifty-fifth 
£ear^of his life, and one year after his accession to the 
imperial rank, he returned to Britain, and re-un ited himself 
to the long-forsaken Helena, with whom he cleierminea" lo 
spend the resTcTue of his life. This intensely happy meeting, 
however, was incomplete in its superlative degree, from the 
absence of Constantine, who was employed in business of 
state by his fatEerJ^but who immediately sent for him, to 
meet his mother and himself at York. His return, it is 
supposed, was delayed by the occurrence of unexpected 
events; and when he came at last, it was to receive the 
embraces of his mother, and to obtain the last sight in life, 
of his imperial father. 

Worn with his exertions in the wars, and the cares 
inseparable from the station he had so long sustained as 
Caesar and general of the empire, scarcely a year had elapsed 
since Constantius' s return to Britain, when he was overtaken 



THE EMPRESS HELENA. 497 

by the fatal illne ss that was so soon to close his career on 
earth. While his sick bed was surrounded by his wife and 
friends, with the Roman officials of his court, the latter 
appear to have formed a party in favour of his son Constan- 
tius, by the empress Theodora, and importuned him to name 
his successor in the imperial dignity. "We are told " the 
dying monarch forgetting his second wife and her offspring, 
exclaimed aloud Constantinum pium ; he would have no other 
successor than the piousUonstantine. It appears Constan- 
tine arrived in Britain barely in time to receive his father's 
dying- blessing. Raising himself up in his bed, in the 
presence of his family, his counsellors, and the chiefs of the 
army, Constantius set the imperial diadem on his head, saw 
him invested with the purple - robes, and declared him 
Emperor. " Now,'' exclaimed the dying monarch, "is my 
death more welcome, and my departure hence more pleasant. 
I have here a noble monument in my son ; one who will, by 
the blessing of God, dry up the tears of the christians, who 
have been so cruelly'persecuted, and revenge the cruelties 
exercised by their tyrants." He then turned to his courtiers, 
officers, and bystanders, and exhorted them to continue 
faithful to their religion and their prince. In order however, 
the better to secure the peaceable accession of his son to the 
throne, after dismissing those who had been present at this 
scene, he summoned all his principal officers and counsel- 
lors who had hitherto been absent around him, and having 
been himself, in early life, a persecutor of the christians, 
under the authority of Dioclesian and Maximinian, he 
executed w r ith greater facility a stratagem which he had 
invented, to ascertain the stability of their affection and 
religious faith. He pretended that he had repented his con- 
version to Christianity, and requested them to concur with 
him again, in sacrificing to the ancient pagan deities. By 
this device he acquired a perfect knowledge of their genuine 
sentiments ; for some readily acquiesced in the proposal, 
while others stood firm in their faith, pe then immediately 
dismissed the apostates from their posts, so that when he 
expired, as he did soon after, to the inexpressible grief 
of his family and friends, he; left Constamine in the hands 



498 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

of honest counsellors; by whom his succession to the 
empire was wisely and judiciously secured. This event 
gave great satisfaction to the Britons, who rejoiced to see 
one born among them, and descended in the maternal line 
from their native princes, elevated to the imperial dignity.* 
Soon after the magnificent funeral of the Emperor Con- 
stantius Chlorus, who was buried with great pomp at York, 
Constantine and his mother Helena, prepared for quitting 
our island, and commencing their journey towards Rome. 
The empress-mother, it seems, had formed a resolution of 
accompanying her imperial son to the continent, and of 
making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, as soon as circum- 
stances could be brought about to favour that long-desired 
object. Helena had an additional motive for being as much 
as possible in company with her son, and notwithstanding 
the perils attending a marching legion, continually liable to 
be opposed and brought to battle by other powers, she would 
not be disusaded from a purpose which she held so deeply at 
heart, by any consideration for her personal safety, but 
resolved to accompany them at all hazards. By his long 
absence from Britain, and from that parent who had 
instructed his childhood in the piety of the Nazarite, and by 
his prolonged association with the gay youths of Rome, as 
might have been expected, and a s his, mother feared and 
found, Constantine had relaxed much from his early "fervour 
for Christianity, although by no means tainted with the 
splendid paganism of the imperial heathen city. To restore 
and invigorate his faith, by her presence and conversation, 
was the ^rrflt ^"fi she promised herself. She was also 
intensely anxious to be further instructed herself, in the 
purest principles and practice of the church, which she 
feared she had so imperfectly acquired in Britain, by an 
intercourse with the descendants of the earliest christians, 

* According to Eusebius, Constantius lived flfty-six years; was Caesar 
sixteen years, and Emperor two. Camden states that at the demolition of the 
monasteries, there was found in the supposed monument of Constantius in 
Yorkshire, a lighted lamp, said to have been burning there ever siucehis burial 
a period of three hundred years! — adding out of Lazinius, that the ancient, 
Eomans used in that manner to preserve lights in sepulchres an immense 
length of time, "by the oiliness of gold, resolved into liquid substance." 



THE EMPRESS HELENA. 499 

the disciples of the apostles themselves, then residents in 
the East. 

Previous to his embarkation, Constantine appointed 
Octavius, a British prince of great capacity, as his deputy 
and Roman governor of the island;* and then with his 
mother, his friends, counsellors, and a considerable army, 
bade farewell to Britain. On the continent he soon com- 
menced the arduous task common to all Roman Emperors, 
of fighting his way for the sovereignty of that city and 
nation universally acknowledged the mistress of t he world. 
We transcribe from Roman History the following account 
of the after proceedings of Constanline. 

"He had some competitors at first for the throne. Among 
the rest was Maxentius, who w as at that time (A.D. 311) 
in possession of Rome, and a steadfast asserter of paganism. 
It was in Constantine's march against the usurper, we are 
told, that he was converted to Christianity, by a very extra- 
ordinary appearance. One evening, the army being upon its 
march towards Rome, Constantine was intent on various 
considerations upon the fate of sublunary things, and the 
dangers of his approaching expedition. Sensible of his own 
incapacity to succeed without Divine assistance, he employed 
his meditations upon the opinions that were then agitated 
among mankind, sent up his ejaculations to Heaven, to 
inspire him with wisdom to choose the path he should 
pursue. As the sun was declining there suddenly appeared 
a pillar of light in the heavens, in the fashion of a cross, 
with this inscription " In this overcome." f So extra- 
ordinary an appearance did not fail to create astonishment 
both in the emperor and the whole army, who reflected on 
it as their various dispositions led them to believe. Those 
who were attached to paganism pronounced it to be a most 
inauspicious omen, portending the most unfortunate events, 
but it made a different impression on the emperor's mind, 
who, as the account goes, was farther encouraged by visions 

* For the after transactions in Britain under Octavius, see the Memoir of 
" Ellen of the Mighty Host " in this Work. 

+ The original in Latin runs " Constantine in hoc signo vinces ; " Constan- 
tine, under this sign thou saalt have victory. 



500 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

the same night. He, therefore, the day following, caused a 
royal standard to be made, like that he had seen in the 
heavens, and commanded it to be carried before him in the 
wars, as an ensign of victory and celestial protection.* After 
this he consulted with the principal teachers of Christianity, 
and made a public avowal of that sacred persuasion." He 
even caused the cross which he was said to have seen in the 
heavens, to be placed on the right of all his statues, with this 
inscription, " Under the influence of that victorious cross, 
Constantine had delivered the city from the yoke of tyran- 
nical power, and restored the senate and people of Rome to 
their ancient authority." Constantine caused himself to be 
baptized by Sylvester, the first of that name, Bishop of 
Home, a modest and pious ecclesiastic, who little thought of 
adopting the title of Pope, or king of kings and lord of lords, 
or any such blasphemous assumptions, like his successors. 
He was the thirty-first Bishop of the See from the com- 
mencement of Christianity, and the first after the tenth or 
last persecution. This holy man is said to have put the 
finishing hand to the conversion of the Emperor, and to 
have persuaded him to make Christianity the religion of the 
Empire. Among the recorded achievements of Constantine, 
much has been stated of his liberation of incarcerated and 
condemned christians, his opening of their closed and for- 
bidden places of worship ; his destruction of idols and the 
temples of false gods ; and ultimately, his universal estab- 
lishment of Christianity, as the religion of the Roman empire. 
To relate these things at large is the province of Church 
History ; our immediate business is with Helena, the empress 
mother, and the subject of this memoir. 

When Constantine resolved on building a new city, to be 
called after his own name, Constantinople, and of removing 
the seat of empire to the east, it is said he left the govern- 
ment of Rome, so long the emporium of the world, in the 
hands of Sylvester the Bishop, and then with his m other and 

* la subsequent times Constantine the Great, on his conversion to Christi- 
anity, placed a cross upon the ball; thus,' as it were, laying the world he 
governed at the feet of Him who redeemed i| ; and ever since that " consecrated 
globe" has been retained as the most expressive symbol of the royal character. 



the empress Helena. 501 

fqiiowers, sailed for the Bosphorus and commenced the 
erectionoY his new metropolis. 

It would seem that the emperor left ample funds, and 
attendants for state and protection,fat the disposal of his 
mother; and while he superintended the huilding of the new 
city, H elena and her train went to the Holy Lan d, and 
recorded her piety in the manner hereinafter to be stated. 

In some accounts of Helena it has been most strangely 
and ignorantly asserted that among her pious achievements 
in the Holy Land, she rebuilt the Temple of Jerusalem. 
The astounding error of such a statement will become 
strikingly manifest when the reader takes into consideration 
the peculiar nature of each of the three successive temples 
which were erected on the same site, previous to the time of 
this British Princess and Roman Empress. 

The first temple of Jerusalem was the ancient and glorious 
fabric built by Solomon, no less stupendous than magnificent, 
the wonder and admiration of the world ; a description of 
which may be seen in the First Book of Kings, chapters vi. 
and vii. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, at the taking 
of Jerusalem, A.M. 1350.* The second temple was com- 
menced after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian 
captivity, and the work carried on under the most unfavour- 
able auspices, from the opposition of the Samaritans, so that 
the workmen were obliged to wield a sword in one hand and 
their tools in the other, to repulse the violence of the enemy. 
When finished it proved far inferior both in its magnificence 
and appointments, to the first temple ; and well might the 
prophet Haggai remark, "Who is there left among you that 
saw this house in her first glory ? Is not this in your eyes as 
nothing ? , 'f This temple, when it became ruinous, was 

* Some idea of the stupendousness and grandeur of the first temple may be 
formed by the following statement. In providing the materials for the building 
there were 30,000 workmen, who wrought by 10,000 a month in Lebanon. 
70,000 labourers that bare burthens; 80,000 quarrymen that hewed in the 
mountains ; and officers and overseers of the work no less than 3300 men. 

+ In the appointments of the second temple, it was deficient of the following five 
articles which belonged to the first. First, the pot of manna, which the Lord 
commanded Moses to lay up before the testimony, for a memorial, Exod. vi. 32. 
Second, the rod of Aaron, which only, among all the rods of the princes of 



502 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

pulled down by Herod the Ascalonite, partly on account of 
the mean consideration in which it was held, in comparison 
with the first edifice. On the removal of the second 
temple, in order to obtain popularity with the Jews, 
Herod built the third temple. This structure, although 
far inferior to the first temple, was considerably superior to 
the second. This third temple became ever memorable for 
the earliest ministry of the Saviour of the world, and the 
scene where he preached salvation to the Jew and Gentile. 
It was finally destroyed byTitus, son of the Roman emperor 
Vespasian, surnamed " the delight and solace of mankind," 
an appellation singularly in contrast with his destructive 
doings at Jerusalem. After this overthrow, the temple lay 
unbuilt and in rubbish till the reign of Julian the Apostate, 
who to diminish the number of christians by the increase of 
the Jews, began to build a fourth temple. But, we are told, 
no sooner were the foundations laid, than an earthquake cast 
them up again, and fire from heaven consumed the stones, 
timber, and the rest of the materials. As for the city of 
Jerusalem itself, it was re-edified by iElius Adrianus, who 
named it JElia ; drove from thence the Jews and gave it to 
the christians. 

Having now shewn what Helena did not perform, in 
regard to rebuilding the Temple of Solomon, an achievement 
absurdly ascribed to her by some writers, but by none of 
any credit ; it remains to be stated what in reality was the 
nature of her doings, while on this long-desired visit to the 
scanty remains of time-honoured ancient Jerusalem. 

After having intently paused over every memorable spot, 
and devoutly meditated over every sacred vestige which re- 
minded her of the presence, death, and passion of the divine 
founder of our faith, Helena resolved to evince her piety by 
leaving here a memorial of her pilgrimage to the Holy City. 
Accordingly, having fixed upon a spot on the Mount of 

Israel budded. Third, the ark of the covenant; the making of which ia de- 
scribed in Exod. xxv. 10; and the placing of it In the oracle, or sanctum 
sanctorum, is mentioned in 1 Kings vi. 19, Fourth, the two tables of the law, 
written by God's own finger, and placed by Moses in the ark of the covenant. 
Fifth, the fire of sacrifice, which came down from heaven ; which fire was by 
the priests kept continually burning. 



THS EMPRESS HELENA. 503 

Olives where the Temple formerly stood, she there caused a 
christian edifice to be erected, which she called the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre. Around this church she also built 
many houses, which became inhabited by the christians who 
congregated there. These buildings perpetually increasing 
till the place became a fair town, when it received the name, 
from the temple or church which crowned its summit, of the 
City of the Holy Sepulchre. 

Having been informed by Curiacus, then Bishop of 
Jerusalem, where was hidden the cross on which the Saviour 
suffered, Helena with passionate eagtrness went to work in 
search of it. An old author states, "much ado had the good 
lady to find the place where our Lord's bodie had beene laid: 
for the Jews and heathens had raised great hillocks on the 
place, and built there a temple of Venus. This temple 
being plucked down, and the earth digged away, she found 
the three crosses whereon our blessed Saviour and the two 
thieves had suffered. Helena being perplexed to know 
which of these was the right crosse, they were all carried to 
a woman who had been long visited with sicknesse, and now 
lay at the point of death. The crosses of the two thieves 
did the weak woman no good ; but as soon as they laid on 
her the crosse on which the Lord died, she leapt up and was 
restored to her former health." 

The same author remarks on the church built by Helena, 
"this Temple of the Sepulchre, even at the first building 
was highly reverenced and esteemed by the christians of 
these parts ; and even untill our dayes, it is much resorted 
to, both by pilgrims from all parts of the Romish church, 
who fondly and superstitiously hope to merit by their 
journey; and also by divers gentlemen of the Reformed 
churches, who travel hitherward partly for curiosity, and 
partly because their generous spirits imitate the heavens 
and delight in motion." * 

Further to celebrate the temple which she had erected, 
Helena caused an order of knighthood to be instituted, the 

* This author adds " whosoever is admitted to the sight of this sepulchre 
payeth nine crowns to the Turkish officers ; so that this tribute only, is worth 
to the Grande Signeur eighty thousand ducats yearly." 
2 T 






504 THE EMPKESS HELEICA, 

members of which were called " Knights of the Sepulchre.** 
They were bound to defend the "Blessed Sepulchre," to 
war against infidels, and to defend pilgrims. This was the 
first of the three knighthoods which were originated to 
celebrate the winning of the Holy Land, and the expulsion 
of the Mahometans, by the princes of Christendom. The 
second-order was the "Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, 5 " 
instituted in 1 124, by Pope Gelasius II.; and the third were 
the "Knights Templars,*' instituted in 1113, by Hugh 
Payennes, and confirmed by Pope Eugenius.* 

The historians of this period truly remark, this was an 
age in which false opinions and false miracles made up the 
bulk of an instructive history ; and many things are related 
in early Roman church history, and as fully believed by the 
credulous votaries of that faith as any statement in holy writ, 
which among the more enlightened portion of mankind not 
merely excites the smile of risibility, but provokes indigna- 
tion, to see matters of profJxmlTo^sacred interest vulgarized 
by superstitious and false statement^ Among the adherents 
of reformed Christianity but little credibility has been ac- 
corded to the account tof Helena's discfovery of the real cross; 
and even less to the following morceau, so devoutly valued 
by the believers in monkish miracles, and that mass of 
trumpery called holy relicsT"~We are told that when Helena 
discovered the cross on which the Saviour died, that she 
also found the three nails, by which his body was pierced 
and attached to it ; and that she disposed of them in the 
following manner. Of one she made a bit for the bridle of 
the horse of her son Constantine, which endowedlthe animal 
with miraculous powers of docility, speed, and sagacity ; of 
another she made a crest for his helmet, which rendered his 
head-piece invulnerable s to the edge of any assailing weapon; 
and the third nail she used as a charm, to calm theiurbulence 
of the Adriatic Sea. Weirmajr such spurious/miracles be 
likened to necromancy, or the pretended-mysteries of the 

* The above quoted remarks, " TJrese three orders M. Seldon putteth not in 
his ; Titles of Honour,' but deservedly excludeth them therefrom, inasmuch that 
they were prohibited to Jcisse a woman\ honoutiary knighthood, and the love ot 
ladies, going together like vertue and'rewara." 



THE EMPRESS HELENA. 505 

black art. These records state that while Helena and her 
train of devotees from the Holy Land were returning to 
Britain, when approaching the city of Venice, the severe 
tempestuous weather which always made the gulf of Venice 
so dangerous till that period, was unusually stormy ; on 
which Helena cast the last remaining nail of the cross into 
the perilous vortex of the heaving ocean; we are told that it 
acted like oil in calming the turbulence of the raging billows ; 
and ever since that time the lagoons of Venice have been 
proverbially mild and free from tempestuous visitations." 

It is said in the " Genealogy of the Saints " and other 
ancient records, that Helena not only discovered " the real 
cross," but brought it with her to Britain. Ross, in his 
*' Antiquities of Warwickshire," states that it was brought 
to Britain by St. Neot; but among other authorities an 
ancient Welsh bard says — 

" Dioben Elen Godebog 
I gred a gavas y grog." 

Implying that without difficulty Elen Godebog found the 
cross for Christendom. In the times of our Roman Ca- 
tholic ancestors, when relics and effigies of saints were 
held in pious esteem and sacred veneration, this Croes 
Naid (Cross of Refuge), as it came to be called in Welsh, 
was set in and ornamented with gold and silver, and adorned 
with precious stones, so that on pompous state occasions it 
formed one of the principal features in a procession.* 

Although a zealous votary of Christianity from her child- 
hood, and habitually practising its merciful dictates, it seems 
that neither Helena nor her celebrated son were thoroughly 
imbued with its doctrines till the miraculous conversion of 
Constantine, and her travels to the Holy Land. But when 
at length she returned to her native country, she came in a 
state of enlightenment never previously enjoyed by any 
native of our island ; and was therefore looked up to by the 
christians of Britain with great veneration and affection. 

* For further information respecting the Croes Naid, we refer the reader to 
an interesting artiele in the first volume of the Arcbasologia Cambrensis, a new 
quarterly Welsh periodical of great merit, under the head of Regalia of Wales, 
to which we have been partly under obligation for this information. 



506 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

At this period Octavius still reigned as king of Britain 
and Roman governor. Although he held both those great 
offices at first in defiance of Constantine, yet as he discharged 
the royal functions so ably, and performed his duties as the 
lieutenant of the empire with unquestioned faithfulness, he 
was not molested by the imperial authorities. Helena was 
doubtless received by him with all the honours due to her 
exalted rank and advanced age. But she had other views 
than concerning herself with the affairs of politics and 
government. Admiring as we do, the views of the authoress 
of the " Roman Ladies in Britain,'' on the close of Helena's 
career, we shall conclude our notice of this celebrated 
woman by one more quotation from that article to which we 
have been under so much obligation in another part of this 
memoir, 

"While this monarch (Constantine the Great) reigned, 
Britain enjoyed perfect peace. To partake so blessed a 
dispensation, his mother now returned to her native land : 
herself full of the mild lessons of the Gospel. For in those 
early times, the principles of worship learnt in the east from 
the primitive disciples of the Apostles themselves, were not 
then adulterated with any of those vain rites or visionary- 
errors, which have since broke the peace of the church, and 
betrayed her misled members again into the cloisters of a 
disguised idolatry ; or to the dark labyrinths of a not less 
fanatic enthusiasm. This truly pious lady, who had visited 
the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem, and stood under the shrine 
in Rome, where St. Peter suffered martyrdom, revered both; 
but she believed that the temples yet to be raised in many a 
pagan breast, was a work of still more sacred structure. She 
accordingly introduced the pure faith she brought into every 
British female circle, where her rank commanded respect, 
aud her virtues influence. Her success was beyond even her 
hopes. Indeed the female heart seems a soil particularly pre- 
pared for this seed of tender planting, yet ordained for the 
"healing of nations!" Even on its natural softness, which 
one of our own authors beautifully styles the soft green of 
the soul, the world-scared eye of man loves to turn his 
wearied sight, and be refreshed. This refreshment has its 






THE EMPEESS HELENA. 507 



well-springs in meekness and endearing soothing ; a reflected 
light of heaven — warmth without beat — bright, but in- 
noxious. 

On this principle Helena gently taught the daughters 
of her native land. Where she found the old Roman phi- 
losophy had ingrafted the sweetness of urbanity, on the 
proud virtues of either paganism, whether of the Druid 
grove or classic temple, she transmuted all into the dignified 
humility of christian holiness. 

During Helena's two abodes here, first as empress-consort, 
and then as empress-mother, she erected many noble works 
in London, and amongst those of the most after utility, 
completely rebuilt the old walls of that city, which had 
suffered much from dilapidation since the time of their first 
erection, in the earliest age of the Roman colony. His- 
torians inform us, that it was by this truly imperial woman 
that the great stone pillar, known in our time by the name 
of the London Stone, was placed in a secure niche of the 
new wall. It had originally been planted on that spot by 
the first Roman colony, and called the Milliarium — the 
grand point of station, whence these bold settlers measured 
the relative distances to all their other posts throughout the 
country. This venerable relic still remains ; and, where the 
eite of the ancient bulwarks may still be traceable, it appears 
prominent in a yet more modern wall.* 

After the munificent dedications of her time and wealth, 
which the Empress Helena bestowed on the embellishments 
of London, the inhabitants changed its name to that of 
Augusta — a compliment applicable to the respected empress, 
or to the city itself, as the most important one in the island. 
But it was not the edification of " houses built with hands " 
that could satisfy her parental spirit; and from the period in 

* " The legend concerning this stone, which supposes that whoever possesses 
it must be lord of the place where it stands, seems to imply something more 
than what is conveyed in the idea of its mile-measuring date. Therefore it 
probably may have had some such still more remote history ; as that connected 
with the Scone Stone, now in the seat of the royal chair at Westminster Abbey 
which was considered a kind of palladium wherever it stood; and for that 
reason was transferred from Scotland into England by Edward I."— Roman 
Ladies in Britain. 

2t2 



508 THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

which her diligent labours, by precept and example, stored 
the minds of the female inmates of her cities, with the true 
principles of the feminine character, the women of Britain 
lived meekly and piously in their homes, cheerfully fulfilling 
their relative duties of wives, mothers, daughters, and mis- 
tresses of families. 

Helena died ; and the mourning was as if every person in 
the island had lost a parent. In process of time other 
emperors came, with other empresses, to this famed little 
northern "gem*' in the imperial crown. Some brought 
good examples, others bad ; but all united in making those 
public dispositions which gradually restored the country 
from its long-accustomed condition of a favoured province 
only, into the prouder position of its former entire inde- 
pendence. 



GENERAL NOTE TO THE EMPRESS HELENA. 

J. L. Stephens, whose " Incidents of Travel in the East," bear as late a date 
as 1849, writes thus familiarly of what he had noticed of certain connections 
with the subject of this memoir, " The Empress Helena came as a crusader to 
the Holy Land, to search for and determine the then unknown localities. And 
the traveller is often astonished that, with so little to guide her, she was so success- 
ful ; for she found, not only -found all the holy places mentioned in the Bible, 
but many more. The worthy empress seemed to think that a little marble 
could not hurt a holy place, and a good deal might help to make holy what was 
not so without it ; and so think most of the Christian pilgrims, for I observed 
that they always kiss with more devotion the polished marble than the rude 
stone. 



£ \ 



THE PRINCESS JOAN, 

DAUGHTER OF KING JOHN OF ENGLAND, SECOND QUEEN OF 
LLEWELYN AB IORWBBTH, SOVEREIGN PRINCE OF NORTH 
WALES, AND MOTHER OF PRINCE DAVID, HIS SUCCESSOR. 

The name of this princess, for many reasons yet to be 
stated, will ever be found among the unpopular female 
sovereigns of Wales ; her faults of character being neither 
redeemed by high talents, private virtues, nor imputed 
amiability of disposition. Yet her elevated position, and 
the peculiarity of her history, rendered her an important 
feature in the annals of her time. 

Before his marriage with Joan, Llewelyn ab Iorwerth 
had been a widower, having previously been united to 
the Princess Tanglwystil, by whom he had a son named 
Griffith, who at this time was heir-apparent to the throne 
of North Wales ; a favourite with his father till this second 
marriage, and in after years very popular with the nation 
for his gallant bearing and gracious demeanour, qualities 
that endeared to the people a youth in whom they beheld 
the brightest promise of a good and capable future sovereign. 

It was in the year 1202 that the union took place between 
the Lady Joan and Llewelyn, on the settlement of a peace 
between her father and the prince of Wales, at which time 
the contracting sovereigns considered such a family alliance 
as a bond which insured their mutual sincerity, as rival po- 
tentates, in regard to their future pacific intentions. It 
appears that Joan was very beautiful in person, and capti- 
vating in her manners, and that she completely enslaved 
the Cambrian prince by the fascination of her charms ; and 
held him in thrall as absolutely after as before marriage. 
Were it not that the infatuation of Llewelyn yields us a 
fair clue towards the probable cause, we could scarcely form 
a conjecture how a people of such violent prejudices and 
high national pride as the Welsh — who especially branded 
illegitimacy of birth as a personal disgrace — could permit 



510 THE PRINCESS JOAN. 

their prince to compromise his dignity by a union with a 
princess of tainted blood, as was notoriously the case in the 
present instance. Joan was an illegitimate daughter of the 
reigning English king. Her mother was the Lady Agatha, 
daughter of Robert Ferrars, earl of Derby; one of the 
many degraded noble dames of England who disgraced their 
families by an illicit connexion with the most unworthy of 
the sovereigns of England. The dowry which her royal 
father gave with her was as contemptible as her pretensions 
to lineal honours ; merely the lordship of Elsmere, in the 
marches of "Wales ; a territory originally torn from the 
ancestors of Llewelyn.* 

Notwithstanding the private fe licity enjoyed by the 
Welsh prince with his new queen, their union signally 
failed in producing those pacific results anticipated between 
the two nations. A furious war soon ensued, which was 
carried on with mutual animosity. Llewelyn and his pa- 
triotic followers had not only to sustain an opposition to 
the entire military strength of England, but the treachery 
of many of his own subjects caused the terrors of a partial 
civil war combined with those of foreign invasion. The 
natural result of such disastrous evils wa3 the success of 
his enemies, and the failure of the Cambrian prince to 
defend his dominions against such superior forces. When 
the army of King John had carried their devastations to 
an unprecedented extreme, while Bangor was blazing and 
Aberconway in the power of the English, Llewelyn led his 
retreating powers into security amidst the fastnesses of 
Snowdon. From thence he despatched his queen attended 
by the usual retinue of a truce, to Aberconway, the head 
quarters of her father the king, to intercede with him for 
a treaty of peace. Although Joan failed to obtain all the 
points desired by her lord, she succeeded in procuring a 

* It is with the utmost disgust that a Welshman will read the following 
statement by Warrington of the occurrences of the year 1203. " The English 
ting having lost a great part of his territories in France returned to England. 
On his arrival he gave Joan, a daughter which he had by a lady of the house of 
Ferrars, in marriage to Llewelyn ; as a reward of the due observance of the late 
treaty ; or as a means of securing those advantages which he might think would 
naturally result from such an alliance." 



THE PRINCESS JOAN. 511 

cessation of hostilities, which was the grand desideratum 
of the perilous hour : for in fact each party, at all times, 
seemed to subscribe to hard terms with a mental reser- 
vation to break them, as soon as the evil hour had passed 
away, and a change of fortune enabled them once more to 
re-fight their battles under better auspices. 

Joan soon became the mother of a prince who was named 
David. It is not known how early after his birth that she 
began to play the part of the harsh stepmother towards 
Griffith, Llewelyn's eldest son, but in course of a few 
years afterwards it is certain that she had succeeded in 
her grand aim of alienating the affections of his father 
from him, and of transferring them to his second son, the 
young prince of whom we are treating, her own child. 

This is, perhaps, the right place to relate a romantic inci- 
dent, said to have taken place during the infancy of Prince 
David, that has long been the subject of a popnlar ballad 
called Bedd Gelart. The tradition goes that on one occa- 
sion Llewelyn and his courtiers were enjoying the pleasures of 
the chase, a damp was thrown upon their enjoyment in conse- 
quence of the unaccountable absence of one of the best dogs in 
all the pack, a buck-bound that was a great favourite with his 
master, presented to him by his royal father-in-law, called 
Kill'hart, which soon after his arrival in Wales was Welshi- 
fied into Gelart. The party soon separated, disappointed 
of their sport, and returned homeward. When Llewelyn 
entered his dwelling, it appears that the whole of his house- 
hold were absent ; but he was greeted by the leaping gam- 
bols of Gelart the moment he appeared. Observing the 
cradle of his child turned upside down, the dog's mouth and 
the floor stained with blood, a horrible suspicion seized him 
that the hound had killed his infant. As the animal leapt 
on him to invite his usual caresses, maddened with the 
thought of his supposed bereavement and furious at the 
sight of the apparent cause, he immediately spurned the 
fondling creature, and thrust him through with his hunting 
spear ; when the poor animal gave a piteous whine and fell 
dead at his master's feet. On turning up the inverted 
cradle, however, how great was Llewelyn's astonishment 



512 THE PRINCESS JOAN. 

and joy when he found his infant alive and well, and by the 
movement of his covering then awakened from his "rosy 
slumbers." Near the cradle was found a large gaunt 
wolf, recently destroyed, with many a mark of deadly con- 
tention gashed upon his fearful carcase. Thus it became 
manifest that poor Gelart had preserved the royal child, 
and after a furious encounter killed the wild beast that had 
stolen into the house to prowl for prey, and according to 
the voracity of its nature, would have speedily devoured it. 
The regret of the prince, whose hasty hand had destroyed 
the most faithful of animals, may be imagined ; and in the 
well-written ballad before referred to, is very touchiogly 
described.* 

The hollow peace which followed, in consequence of the 
intercession of Queen Joan with her father, was soon broken. 
As it was constructed on terms too galling for the impatient 
and resentful Cambrians to endure longer than the period 
when they could once more take the field with advantage, 
they became the wilful aggressors, and both countries were 
again involved in all the horrors of a vindictive and un- 
sparing war. But as the lady of this memoir is not per- 
sonally concerned in the conflicts of these times (which 
indeed have been partially narrated in our memoirs of 
Gwladys and Sina, the daughter-in-law and daughter of 
Llewelyn ab Iorwerth) any further reference to them is here 
unnecessary. 

As young Griffith advanced towards manhood it is pro- 
bable that he grew impatient of the restraints wantonly 
imposed upon his ardent disposition, and the consequent 
discomfort of his paternal home, from the marked favouritism 
evinced by his English stepmother towards his half-brother 
David, could not but produce their natural effect. The 
artifices of Joan, aided by the unequivocal symptoms of 
discontent and turbulence which her usage had first im- 
planted in the breast of Griffith, in the course of time had 

* This incident gave rise to the proverbial saying among the Welsh in cases 
of intense regret for untoward occurrences, " I am sorry as the man who killed 
his greyhound." 



THE PRINCESS JOAW. 518 

their long-sought effect of embroiling him with his father. 
As we find that the rental of certain districts was appro- 
priated for the maintenance of this unhappy prince, we may 
conclude that he had then quitted the paternal roof, and 
commenced an establishment of his own. In early life, 
probably soon after he had entered upon his new home, he 
married his cousin, the beautiful and virtuous Sina, as 
related in her memoir. As a young family followed this 
union Griffith soon found that the revenues derived from the 
cantrevs or townships assigned him by his father, inadequate 
to his enlarged expenses. It is probable that after many 
ineffectual remonstrances with his father, in a fatal hour he 
seized on the possession of other lands, in defiance of his 
parent and sovereign's refusal to grant them at his repeated 
solicitation. This daring and inexcusable conduct on the 
part of Griffith created a breach between the father and son 
which time could never.close. 

The disastrous events which followed, justify us in attri- 
buting to Joan the entire foundation and progress of the 
present unhappy order of things. As she had succeeded so 
well in alienating the affections of her lord from his elder 
son, and transferring them undividedly to the younger, she 
soon conceived the bolder project of gaining the succession 
to the crown for David ; which could only be done by work- 
ing out her schemes for the disinheriting of Griffith. 

Stimulated doubtless, by the artifices of this designing 
and unprincipled princess, Llewelyn ultimately beheld in his 
once beloved elder son, a dangerous rival, whose popularity 
with the nobles, and audacity towards him, tended to the 
forcible seizure of the crown and his own dethronement* 
Yielding to such insidious suggestions he was at length 
induced to violate the law of primogeniture and declare is 
younger son the future inheritor of the sovereignty, while 
the gallant Griffith became a captive, immured for life in a 
gloomy fortress. Thus the wily Joan attained the summit 
of her desires, the object of all her criminal machinations, in 
the exaltation of her own son by the ruin of his elder brother; 
but as Griffith was the idol of the array and the favourite of 
the people, she shared the odium of his imprisonment with 



514 THE PRINCESS JO AH. 

his misguided father. This act of weakness and injustice on 
the part of the great and heroic Llewelyn ah Iorwerth, was 
the most censurable and unpopular proceeding of his long 
and distinguished reign, and became a prolific source of 
national disasters long after his decease. 

It is possible that the world in its lenient allowances for 
the frailties of humanity, and the temptations to injustice to 
which maternal affection had incited her, might in some 
degree pardon or find excuses for her conduct, had her 
bearing in other respects proved worthy of her exalted 
station in society ; but unfortunately for the fame of Joan 
we have next to present her in an unfavourable phase, the 
least to be expected, from the absence of all incitement to 
her peculiar misdeed ; and for which nothing can be put 
forth in extenuation of the criminalty. 

Every detail in the private life of Llewely n ab Iorwerth 
tends to prove that he was no less a hero in the field, than 
the most tender and indulgent of husbands in the domestic 
circle. His boundless affection for his second queen misled 
him to the perpetration of the principal error of his eventful 
life ; but there is more to be related of him in that character 
than has yet fallen under general observation. This prince 
had a favourite country residence called Trevriew, situate 
by the village and port still bearing that name, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Llanrhwst. It was here he spent the happiest 
hours of his life, and was probably the place where David 
was born and nursed, and where the affair of the dog 
Gelart, as before related, is supposed to have occurred. In 
this happy spot, so prolific of felicitous reminiscences, there 
appears to have been but one drawback on domestic comfort 
and convenience ; the church was so preposterously ill situ- 
ated, and so far from the house, as not to be approachable 
by either horse or carriage — it stood on a mountain. Ac- 
cording to the custom rather than the piety of those days, 
Queen Joan and the ladies of her court went to church 
daily, and frequently twice a day, on .foot, having to walk 
or rather to climb, over the precipitous sides of an Alpine 
height to reacnthe church of Llanrhychwyn, and afterwards 
to descend the same way, when their devotions were over. 



THE PRINCESS JOAN. 515 

To obviate such discomfort, Llewelyn developed a feature 
in his character for which no historian has hitherto given 
him credit — that of a prince of great gallantry, in the ladies 
sense of the term, though probably that was one of the least 
points of appreciation that a truly great man should ever 
covet. He caused a church to be built at Trevriew ; so 
that in future neither the queen nor her ladies would be 
further subjected to the miseries of a rough ramble during 
the inclemencies of winter or the sultriness of summer. 

As this lady ultimately attained the utmost height of the 
vile st s pecies of notoriety that can distinguish a bad wo- 
man, that of the faithless wife and paramour of the profli- 
gate, we hold ourselves justified in pausing at this period of 
her history, to scrutinize the motives which could actuate 
her in the assumption of a characteristic in reality so foreign 
to her as piety : especially as certain authors, more Quixotic 
than judicious, have embraced the honour of becoming her 
vindicators, her knight-errants forsooth ! to do battle for 
her with the perverted pen of pseud o history, by aspersing 
the character of her heroic and too indulgent husband and 
sovereign. Although a semblance of extreme devotion by 
constant attendance at church has often gained a saintly 
reputation, we may be permitted to doubt the saintliness of 
the daughter of King John, and the motives which urged 
her so often up and down the mountain's side, to and from 
the place of prayer and devotion to the service of the benign 
Father of the universe, when we reflect how frequently, in all 
countries, the sacred fane has been the scene of the most un- 
hallowed intrigues and licentious assignations ;— more espe- 
cially when we couple these general suggestions with the 
particular fact, about to be related; proving her predilection 
for her own countrymen, by the circumstance that she 
sacrificed her honest fame and virtue to the first English- 
man that came in her way, while she was the reigning 
consort of a British prince and mother of the heir-apparent 
to his throne. May we not believe then, notwithstanding 
the paucity of written record, that Joan found among the 
priesthood of Lanrhchwyn church some of her own 
countrymen, whose nationality and subservient aid were 
2 v 



516 the Princess joan. 

ready at her beck to forward her secret messages to Eng- 
land, with whose sovereign and subjects it is certain she 
communed on other matters than those of the communion 
of saints in the confessional of sinners ? In Wynn's history 
of Wales, Joan is emphatically styled «' a sljcwwnan ;" and 
doubtless she is open to more than suspicion, a3 an intrig- 
uante, both in political and amatory matters : and it is not 
to be imagined that a woman of her character was without 
her devoted and favoured admirers before she left her fa- 
ther's court, or that she afterwards failed to divulge those 
political occurrences of her time, to favour the land of her 
birth at the expense of the country which had adopted her 
as its daughter when she became its queen.* It has been 
seen, at that part of his career immediately following his 
union with Joan, that it was the custom of Llewelyn to 
take his wife with him to his camp ; doubtless his motives 
may be construed into other views and feelings than those 
assignable to an uxorious husband ; and while many a 
jealous Cambrian perhaps too readily would view her in the 
light of a spy of England in the disguise of a Welsh queen, 
even Llewelyn himself, immoderately attached to her as he 
was, does not appear at this time to have yielded her his 
entire confidence, as by taking her wherever he went, it 
may be inferred that he seemed to distrust her from under 
his own eye and observance. The instance we have related 
of her interference with her father to procure a peace at so 
perilous a period, doubtless gained her a degree of popu- 
larity with the Welsh which they had previously denied 
her ; for, to the youth and beauty of this " sly woman'* 
were now added the claims of address in successful negocia- 
tion, and supposed patriotism towards the country of her 
transplantation. Whatever favour and consideration she 
may have thus won with the warriors of Wales, the bound- 
less affection of Llewelyn was soon manifest, and to such an 

* In the year 1212, memorable for the most atrocious conduct on the part 
of King John, in causing twenty-eight Welsh hostages, which had been deli- 
vered up to him at the late peace, to be hanged ; Queen Joan in two instances, 
caused intelligence to be conveyed to her father apprizing him of the peril in 
which he stood from the confederacy formed between Llewelyn and the mal- 
content barons of England. V ^yS 



the princess Joan. 517 

inordinate degree that all future caution and distrust on his 
part were lost for ever. It would appear that nothing short 
of the severe blow which he was destined to endure in his 
connubial attachment, seemed capable of rousing him from 
his delusive and unfortunate attachment. 

As the most memorable event in the life of the lady of 
this memoir now comes under notice, a brief transcript of 
the history of these times becomes necessary, to show the 
connection it bears with the private conduct of the characters 
under consideration. At this period King John, the father 
of Joan, was dead ; and his son Henry III. wore the crown 
of England. We transcribe from Theophilus Jones's 
History of Breconshire the following account of the conclu- 
sion of the war then pending between the two nations, 
previous to the introduction on the stage of this memoir, of 
a character who has to play a very conspicuous part in the 
drama of our heroine's life; the English baron William de 
Breos the younger, who was taken prisoner by Llewelyn, at 
the siege of Montgomery Castle. 

"War still raged in the marches; the king of England 
heading his own troops, made vigorous effects to conquer the 
principality; while on the other hand Llewelyn strained 
every nerve to maintain his independence. The English 
monarch soon after his irruption into the Borders led his 
army into Ceru (Kerry), in Montgomeryshire, to a place 
called Creigiau (the rocks), after having in his march 
thither compelled the Welsh to raise the siege of Mont- 
gomery. At Ceru much time was spent in cutting down a 
wood of vast extent, which had frequently protected the 
Welsh from the incursions of the English, and in the centre 
of which was a castellated mansion, or as others say, a 
religious house, serving as a place of security to the in- 
habitants in case of a sudden irruption or unexpected attack 
from an enemy.* This building was reduced to ashes ; and 

* Warrington, on the authority of Matthew Paris, states thus (after raising 
the siege of Montgomery), " Having received a reinforcement, Henry ventured 
to penetrate the recesses of the forest. With infinite difficulty he opened a 
passage for his army by setting fire to the woods, and at length arrived at a 
solitary place called Cridia, of the Carmelite order, an abbey belonging to the 



518 THE PRINCESS JOAN. 

as its site was thought almost inaccessible, Henry by the 
advice of his officers, laid the foundation of a castle on the 
spot where it stood. But Llewelyn, though hitherto re- 
pulsed, was very far from being subdued; nor was it his 
disposition to remain idle, while the enemy was working 
into the interior of his dominions. With an eagle eye he 
watched the movements and intercepted the convoys of the 
king of England ; and sometimes cut in pieces his foraging 
parties. It was in one of these excursions that the notorious 
William de Breos was taken prisoner by the Welsh ; and 
although the whole territory of Buallt (Builth) was offered 
for his ransom, it was refused b} r Llewelyn. 

Henry awakened by these losses, and having some reason 
to suspect treachery among his officers, who, as it was said, 
corresponded with the enemy, and made him acquainted 
with his plans, at length thought proper to abandon the en- 
terprise, and to leave the intended fortress unfinished* 
After three months fruitless waste of time and labour, and 
the loss of many men, during which period he had expe- 
rienced nothing but mortification, he yielded to the sugges- 
tions of his barons, and consented to make a peace with 
Llewelyn ; even upon the disgraceful terms of levelling with 
the ground all the works which he had constructed, and 
nearly completed, at an immense expense. The Welsh 
prince on his part, engaging to pay him three thousand 
marks, as a compensation for the materials left on the spot ; 
and consenting that in future the lord of Ceru should hold 
his territory as a fief of the crown of England. As a proof 
of the low estimate set upon his merits by his sovereign, 
Henry made no stipulation in favour of William de Breos, 
but suffered him to remain a prisoner with Llewelyn. The 
Welsh prince treated him less like a captive than as an 
honored guest. He ate at his table in company with the 
sovereign and his queen, and passed his hours pleasantly, 
in social intercourse, without the least appearance of re- 

White Friars. Having been informed that this religious house had been used by 
the Welsh as a place of retreat, he laid itin ashes ; and its situation being deemed 
impregnable, Hubert de Burgh, with the kings's consent, commenced tb.e 
foundation of a castle on the ruins of the monastery." 



THE PRINCESS JOAN. 519 

straint; nor was his detention subjected to the formality of 
captivity, further than was necessary for his secure keeping. 
But the baseness of this man soon became hideously ap- 
parent by the unworthy returns which he made for this 
generous confidence and princely treatment. However his 
ingratitude was not of a darker dye than might have been 
expected, had the character of the perfidious prisoner been 
sooner known. 

This William de Breos has been confounded by some 
writers, with the elder Baron of that name, whose memoirs 
have been given in this work, in connection with those of 
his wife Maud de Haia. But the younger William de 
Breos, the captive of Llewelyn, of whom we are now treat- 
ing, was the elder son of Reginald de Breos, by his first 
wife ; (be it remembered, not by his second wife, who was 
Gwladys Ddu, the daughter of Llewelyn ab Iorwerth) : 
Reginald being the son of William de Breos, senior, it 
follows that this captive was the grandson of the infamous 
man-slaughterer of Abergavenny castle and the vile Maud 
above-mentioned ; and quite worthy of the line from which 
he descended. According to Theophilus Jones, from whose 
history we now quote, this Baron, though less celebrated 
for blood-shedding propensities, was, like his grandsire, 
one of the most unprincipled of men ; as is proved by the 
following recorded facts. " William de Breos, the then 
lord of Gower, was a dissolute and expensive man of ruined 
fortune, who had carried on a swindling transaction, in 
selling certain estates of his, to three different persons, 
taking the payment for them from each, unknown to the 
other, but delivering up the possession of the property to 
neither. In the first place he had agreed to sell them to 
the earl of Hereford ; then, to the two Mortimers, who 
Were ignorant of any former sale ; and lastly to Hugh de 
Spencer. There was even another claimant defrauded in 
these transactions, John de Breos, who had married the 
daughter of the elder William de Breos, insisted upon her 
right to the inheritance. Soon after he had swindled, 
baffled, and embroiled them all, it was his lot to be taken 
prisoner by Llewelyn ab Iorwerth. 

2 v 2 



520 THE PRINCESS JOAN. 

It appears that during the light and pleasant captivity of 
William de Breos, according to the heartless profligacy of 
his character, forgetting all ties of honour, gratitude or 
friendship towards his confiding host, as Llewelyn may 
truly be considered, rather than the rigid master of his fate, 
he insinuated himself into the good graces of the queen ; 
and ultimately was admitted into criminal familiarities with 
her. Utterly ignorant of the atrocious conduct of De Breos, 
or the faithlessness of his traitress wife, and finding the 
king of Engl*id seemed indifferent about his fate, Llewelyn 
compassionating his long -continued detention, accepted the 
terms of ransom which he had previously refused. The 
castle of Buallt (Builth), and the territories included in 
that district being surrendered into the hands of Llewelyn, 
and a considerable sum of money also paid to him, De 
Breos was liberated, and he returned to his lordship of 
Gower, in Glamorganshire. 

Soon after his departure, the generous and ill requited 
prince of Wales had the bitter mortification to become ac- 
quainted with the intrigue which had been carried on 
between De Breos and queen Joan, and all the particulars 
of his dishonour. It is probable that Llewelyn gained that 
information, in the first instance, from an English baron 
named Hubert de Burgh, whose correspondence with the 
Welsh prince afterwards became the subject of a charge 
against him, affecting even his life.* Llewelyn might have 
but slight cause for doubting the truth of De Burgh's state- 
ment, as that baron seems to have been so greatly attached 
to him as to have become a traitor to his own imbecile 
sovereign, in his intense admiration of the heroic prince of 
Wales ; yet as he knew that a very rancorous spirit of hatred 
existed among the English barons towards each other, 
doubtless he was anxious to the last to hug the consolatory 
idea that the heinous charge against his queen possibly 
originated in such a pique. The character of De Breos 

* As a commentary on the superstition prevalent among the English, even 
of the highest class, at this period, it may be mentioned, that one of the 
charges against Hubert de Burgh was that of " stealing a precious stone from 
the king's treasury, which had the virtue of rendering the wearer of it invul- 
nerable in battle ; and sending the same to Llewelyn, the king's enemy." 



THE PRINCESS JOAN. 521 

warrants the probability that Hubert de Burgh gained the 
knowledga on which he founded his report from the very 
mouth of the former, whose vanity would prompt him to 
boast of the happy issue of his proceedings during his cap- 
tivity ; like all such wretches, little scrupulous of compro- 
mising his victim, or partner in guilt, and involving her in 
the ruin which would follow the discovery of her criminality. 
Fatally for the peace of the prince, when he investigated 
the matter among his courtiers and domestics, contrary to 
what we must conceive to have been his most ardent 
desire, the result proved confirmatory of his previous 
information. The tradition goes, that in a deep glen ad- 
joining the grounds, belonging to the palace of Aber, the 
amorous pair had been overlooked by an officer of the 
palace under circumstances too decisive to admit of the 
least incertitude respecting their guilt. Until called upon 
by his prince for his testimony, it is but the natural result 
of cautious prudence that this witness should conceal a 
matter that so deeply involved the character of the queen ; 
and that when rumour pointed him out as the original 
master of the secret, to have related all he knew when au- 
thoritatively so required. That Llewelyn should have been 
incredulous on the subject in the first instance, was natural 
enough, as Joan was at this time several years the senior of 
De Breos, although younger than himself; she had arrived 
at least at the mature age of forty-three, while the English 
baron could not have been above four or five and thirty. 
But when the attractive persons and winning powers of 
some English women at that period of life is considered, 
there is nothing in the difference of their respective ages 
to cast the slightest shade on the probability of the 
occurrence.* 

Exasperated to frenzy on fully ascertaining the infidelity 
of his wife, whom he had so fondly loved aud tenderly in- 
dulged, for the twenty-seven years that she had been his 

* It will be remembered that " fat, fair, and forty," was the beau-ideal of 
female attraction with George TV., supposed in his day to have been the best 
judge in England of such matters ; William de Breos appears to have enter- 
tained a similar taste, in reference to the two last requisitions, but queen Joan, 
it appears, from the sculptured likeness on her coffin, was by no means fat. 



522 THE PRINCESS JOAN. 

queen, to the very summit of her expressed desires, he 
determined to be most signally revenged on her atrocious 
gallant. Thus resolved, the prince of Wales, apparently 
in the same cordial spirit of friendship which had marked 
their late intercourse and parting, sent De Breos a formal 
invitation to visit him at his palace of Aber, to enjoy with 
him the hospitalities of his castle during the festivities of 
Easter ; which season, immediately following the austeri- 
ties of lent, was usually felt and enjoyed as the gayest and 
most exhiierating of the festivals sanctioned and patronized 
by the church of Rome. The voluptuous English baron, 
delighted with the prospect of duping again his former gen- 
erous host, was nothing slow in accepting the welcome 
invitation, doubtless anticipating with sanguine eagerness, 
a repetition of his former intercourse with the frail queen 
of Llewelyn. 

On the arrival of William de Breos a sumptuous banquet 
was served, worthy the board of a sovereign prince ; but 
the Lord of Gower was doubtless surprised at the absence 
of the fair hostess from, the table she had been accustomed 
to grace ; and the unwonted gloom that pervaded the once 
gay hall of Aber. We may conceive from the feelings 
which may be supposed to agitate the host, and participated 
in by his adherents, that this ominous meal was partaken of 
in the dark silence befitting a feast of vengeance, the pro- 
longed continuance of which was calculated both to astonish 
and alarm the guilty guest. The mystery however, was at 
length solved; giving him to understand the secret of his 
inveiglement, Llewelyn first reproached the profligate with 
his crime, and then commanded him to be ignominiously 
dragged out of his presence, and hanged upon a tree of con- 
spicuous appearance, situate on a rising ground within the 
immediate precincts of the palace.* 

* Warrington relates this matter thus. "Llewelyn had yet another blow 
to sustain, which was an injury of all others the mosi, poignant. William de 
Breos taken prisoner at the affair of Montgomery, on paying a ransom of three 
thousand marks had been released from his captivity the following year. He 
soon after, by surprise, fell again into the same situation ; and, as it is said, 
having been discovered in carrying on an amour with the Welsh princess, tha 
sister of Henry, and the wife of Llewelyn, he suffered an ignominious death by 
the command of the injured husband." A few lines further on this very partial 
author calls this offender's execution a murder. 



THE PRINCESS JOAN. 523 

The enraged prince was but too readily obeyed ; for there 
was no friend at hand to intercede fur a mitigation of his 
punishment : and vengeance on the villanous foreigner who 
had dishonoured their prince and nation, and abused the 
sacred attributes of friendship and hospitality, was the gen- 
eral feeling of that assemblage of Welshmen. Foredoomed 
as he was, the business of his execution was brief enough 
and soon over: when a wild savage shout, from the sur- 
rounding guests, vassals, and inmates of Aber, rent the air, 
nd announced that the enemy of their sovereign, the high 
and haughty William de Breos was no more to be numbered 
among existing mortals. 

On the establishment of the queen's guilt we are not 
informed how she was disposed of, but may conceive that 
imprisonment in one of the tower chambers of the castle 
became her immediate doom. Tradision however, has given 
us a clue by which to judge of the temper wherewith she 
met her disgrace. Most assuredly it was any thing but 
what might be expected of a penitent ; for of any emotion 
of humbled contrition her haughty soul seemed utterly 
incapable. Pride and insolent defiance of any fate that 
might befal her, in consequence of her discovered treachery 
towards her ever indulgent lord, and her vaunted avowal of 
her guilty preference for her gallant — the vulgar semblance 
of the heroism of the hardenened death- defying criminal — 
appear to have been the most prominent characteristics of 
Joan Plantaganet, in the wild hour of her detection and 
punishment. The common tradition of the country reports, 
that the bard of the palace, partaking in the highest degree 
of the popular resentment against the queen and her gallant* 
presented himself before her at the moment of his death- 
struggles, and addressed her in the following couplet :— 

" Hark'ee, wife of prince Llewelyn,* 
What wilt thou give to see thy GwiLym ? 

* The bard addressed th e queen of course in Welsh ; and as she had been 
twenty-seven years in Wales, her capability of answering in the same language 
cannot be doubted. The bard's vernacular strain ran thus : 

Diccin doccin wraig Llewelyn 
Beth a roedd am gweled Gvvilyrn ? 



524 THE PRINCESS JOAN. 

To which she immediately answered, in a strain of similar 
brevity, 

" England, Wales, and aye Llewelyn,* 
All all I'd give to see my Gwilym." 

When the bard, emphatically pointing through the eye- 
let or loop-hole that overlooked the scene of the execution, 
exclaimed triumphantly, 

" Then behold him there 1" 

when her eyes fell upon the suspended form of De Breos, 
gibbetted on the branch of that great oak, beneath whose 
shade they had often sat together. 

It is probable that Joan in the first instance imagined her 
divorce from Llewelyn would be the only consequence of the 
discovery and exposure of her crime ; scarcely aware it seems, 
as she had witnessed principally the mildest aspect of his 
character, that ber lord was as terrible in his wrath as tender 
in his connubial affections. But when the dreadful fact of 
her favorite's destruction was presented to her view, we 
should conclude that after her excitement was succeeded by 
a natural transition to the state of exhaustion and lassitude 
that ever follows the ebullisions of high passion, that dread 
for her own fate would mingle with the horrors of the hour ; 
and wholesomely aid to subdue the insolent defiance of her 
demeanour. 

The body of William de Breos was buried in a field near 
the place of his execution, thence called Cae Gwilym Ddu, 
Black William's field ; a designation which it still retains.^ 

* And the queen's reply, 

Cymru, Lloegr a Llewelyn, 

A rhown y gyd am weled Gwilym. 

t This enclosure is in the parish of Llandegai, Carnarvonshire. Pennant 
states that at the entrance of a deep glen near Aber, there is a very large 
artificial mount nearly adjoining the village of Mwd, flat at the top, and near 
sixty feet in diameter, widening towards the base, on which once stood the 
castle of Llewelyn ab Iorwerth. Some of the foundations he says, are yet to 
be discovered near the summit ; find in digging there the vestiges of buildings, 
the moat and its feeder may be found. From this height it is said the detec- 
tion of the intrigue which led to this tragic catastrophe took phice. 



THE PRINCESS JOAN. 525 

Gwilym Ddu was the usual term applied to him by the 
Welsh, either from the colour of his hair and dark com- 
plexion, or from the sense they entertained of the blackness 
of his treachery : perhaps both. 

Respecting the execution of this unpopular man War- 
rington remarks, " whether the crime for which he suffered 
was real, or only imputed to him, as a pretext for vengeance, 
his fate however was justly due to the tenor of a life deeply 
tinged by perfidy, and marked by the bloody traces of a spirit 
the most cruel and ferocious " 

Bad as was the character of William de Breos the younger, 
he is here charged with vices by no means attributable to 
him ; and the latter part of the above sentence, as well as 
the entire references to him in Warrington's History of 
Wales, prove that author to have committed the glaring 
error, inexcusable in a national historian, of confounding 
the two relatives of the same name together, and making 
the grandfather and grandson to be one and the same 
person. 

The insinuation contained in the former part of the pas- 
sage ; which tends to cast a doubt on the reality of the 
crime for which the younger De Breos suffered, is one in 
which many writers have delighted to indulge ; and which 
appears to have been founded, originally, on an assertion of 
Matthew of Westminster, that he was put to death without 
reason. Other authors have repeated the assumption, but 
not one has given any thing like a sufficient ground for the 
establishment of such a doubt. One of the charges made 
in England against Hubert de Burgh, was, that in conse- 
quence of the information given by him to prince Llewelyn, 
that William de Breos was hanged like a common thief; 
but in that charge it is by no means asserted, assumed, or 
even insinuated that such information was false : and that 
the prince of Wales discovered corroborative circumstances 
at home, that warranted the truth of the tidings which he 
had received, is supported both by probability and the gen- 
eral tradition of the country. 

It appears that queen Joan survived her disgrace six 
years, and died in the year 1236 ; and that with the ce3- 



526 THE PRINCESS JOAN. 

sation of her life, if not sooner, died also the resentment of 
her injured lord. It is probable that she lived the latter 
portion other life separated from her husband, in a secluded 
part of the castle, under the influence and surveilance of 
the priesthood, practising all the austerities of penance en- 
joined by the catholic church, or suggested by her own 
intense sense of contrition. That she ultimately died a 
sincere penitent, there is every reason to believe. What 
would appear to be a keen feeling of self-condemning 
humiliation and repentance, urged her to request that her 
remains should be buried in unconsecrated ground, thus in 
the truest sentiments of elevated piety and contrition, stig- 
matizing herself in a religious sense as one of the vilest of 
offenders. The spot which she selected as her final resting 
place was on the open shore, near Beaumaris in the Island 
of Anglesea, in aftertime kDown by the name of Llanvaes, 
where she was interred accordingly. On the lid of her 
stone coffin, that coffin like its occupant of memorable his- 
tory ! there was carved a female bust with a fine face, sup- 
posed to have been a likeness of the princess Joan, with the 
head envelloped in the drapery of a nun, with upraised 
hands, as in the act of prayer, and pleading for mercy. 
This attitude, v> ith the adoption of the monastic garb, which 
probably was her only costume since the catastrophe which 
consigned her to seclusion, we should regard as another 
indication of her penitential spirit which marked the closing 
period of her life. 

Remembering the many happy years which he had en- 
joyed in the society of his late queen, before a shadow of 
guilt could be cast on her fair fame, and perhaps affected 
with the striking evidences of her repentance, Llewelyn's 
resentment appears to have been appeased. Agreeably to 
the generosity of his character he gave an affecting proof of 
his tender reminiscenses of their happier days, and ultimate 
forgiveness of his queen's offences, by the manner in which 
he caused the obscure spot of her interment to be honoured, 
and as it were enshrined, on the wild sea shore. With his 
usual bias for underrating the virtues of this prince War- 
rington finds less liberal motives for his conduct on th»s 



THE PRINCESS JOAN. 527 

occasion ; he says, "to do honour to her brother the king of 
England, or as a tender memorial of regard, Llewelyn 
erected over the grave of this princess a monastery of bare- 
footed friars ; a testimony of respect to her memory which 
renders it at least doubtful the criminal part of her conduct; 
and may in some degree take away the stain which history 
has cast upon her fame,' 1 

When we consider the superstition of these times, and 
the general belief that the souls of the deceased could be 
liberated from purgatory at the intercession of the priest- 
hood ; and the belief entertained by Llewelyn himself, that 
the perpetual masses performed on the very grave of the 
penitent were efficacious in promoting her eternal felicity, 
the originality of the conception and the piety of his deed 
in causing this erection and the establishment of continual 
devotion, will appear more eminently striking ; and doubt- 
less in those days gained for him the highest opinion for 
magnanimous generosity almost allied to a holiness of cha- 
racter. But paradoxical as it may seem, Warrington in the 
above quoted passage, has converted one of the most com- 
mendable traits in the character of Llewelyn into one of the 
most censurable that could disgrace a barbarian. The 
inference is, that since he could give such a signal evidence 
of his tenderness for the memory of this frail princess that 
consequently she must, or may have been, innocent of the 
intrigue attributed to her. If the princess Joan was innocent, 
it follows that her paramour was also untainted with the 
crime for which he suffered an ignominious death; and 
that Llewelyn ab Iorwerth was a monstrous combination of 
falsehood, cruelty, and cold-blooded villany. It also goes 
to prove that prince to have been an egregious fool, 
a capricious idiot, that could at one moment by liberal 
treatment convert a national enemy and captive of war into 
a supposed friend ; ultimately parting with him with the 
utmost cordiality, and then in the course of a few weeks, 
could treacherously lure the same individual back into his 
castle : and instead of acting the hospitable host as formerly, 
could now become his hangman. In this freak of inconsistent 
ferocity it also infers that he could malign the spotless cha- 
2 w 



528 THE PRINCESS JOAK. 

racter of a dearly beloved wife with whom he had lived 
happily twenty-seven years, cast her from him as a polluted 
wretch, and branding the memory of her who was the 
mother of his heir apparent to the throne with one of the 
foulest stigmas in the catalogue of human infamies. 

Until a more probable reason than mere savage capri- 
ciousness and a motiveless love of cruelty, here imputed to 
Llewelyn, can be advanced to account for his severity in 
the one case, and his tenderness in the other — (we refer to 
the execution of William de Breos, and the erection of a 
monastery on the grave of his departed queen), the most 
rigid examination of the question calls for the ultimate con- 
clusion which we have recorded in our previous pages. 
Far be it from the author of this work to be biassed by 
nationality so far as to violate the integrity of history by 
putting forth any undue claims in favour of this prince ; or 
to assert anything commendable of him, that cannot b& sup- 
ported by well attested written record. It is not pretended, 
nor would such an assumption be at all admissible, that this 
gallant sovereign of an insolated small nation was imbued 
with the finely balanced qualities that would grace a Roman 
patriot and legislative statesman. Llewelyn ab lorwerth 
was too compassionately generous, to possess at the same 
time the inexorable severity of Roman justice, as exem- 
plified in a Brutus or Alexander Severus. Amidst the 
the faults of character attributable to him he undeniably 
possessed one redeeming grace ; that same which in a Caesar 
and Napoleon have been approvingly commented on, and 
declared by the universal suffrage of mankind to have been 
the fairest feather in their cap of eminence ; the finest jewel 
in their tiara of dominion — we mean his magnanimous 
clemency. Who that has studied his history will be dis- 
posed to deny that the sovereign and husband of the princess 
of our memoir was remarkable for a most gracious and for- 
giving disposition towards those offenders whom both per- 
sonal resentment and the severity of justice would have 
doomed to the most fatal of catastrophes? the wilful 
blindess of historians to this ruling feature in his character 
seems unaccountable, when the most prominent details of 



•!?HE PRINCESS JOAN. 529 

his life very forcibly attest that clemency — the generous 
forgiveness of the most irritating vexatious and galling 
injuries, marked the entire course of his dealings with 
mankind. 

In proof of the truth of what may yet appear mere 
assertion, we shall refer to history ; even Warrington's own 
history of this heroic, generous, and greatly calumniated 
prince of Wales ; the last but two, of our native Cambrian 
sovereigns. 

We commence with the period when his father Iorwerth 
ab Owen Gwyneth was deprived of his legitimate succession 
to the throne of North Wales, by the usurpation of his 
brother David. By an appeal to the nobility of the country, 
Llewelyn ab Iorwerth was adjudged to be rightful ruler of 
the land*, and accordingly his uncle was dethroned, and the 
former quietly ascended the throne of his ancestors. Thus, 
at the bright period when the star of young Llewelyn was 
for the first time in the ascendant, and the power to avenge 
the injuries of years became his own, he contented himself 
by merely discrowning this malignant relative. He did not, 
according to the fierce examples of the age, visit him with 
the deadly vengeance of an infuriated son in his hour of 
triumph, for the cruelty of years, who had imprisoned his 
father for life. He did not even subject him to the restraint 
of temporary captivity for a single day, but left him in 
possession of certain districts and fortresses for his future 
revenue. When the ingratitude and ambition of the 
dethroned David induced him in the year 1197 to take the 
field, with the aid of an English army, with the view of recover- 
ing the crown, Llewelyn was fortunate enough to defeat his 
■combined forces, and again made this uncle his prisoner. 
Although his personal security required that his enemy- 
should now be doomed to perpetual confinement, such was 
the compassionate spirit of this young prince, that after a 
very brief detention, he once more set his uncle at liberty. 
But David ab Owen Gwyneth, mad for recovering the 
royalty he had lost, was so entirely wrapped up in his own 
selfishness, void of all generosity himself, proved utterly 
incapable of appreciating these noble instances of forbearance 



530 THE PRINCESS JOAN. 

and leniency in his nephew, again rebelled against him, and 
made a third attempt to dethrone him. It was only after 
defeating and making him his prisoner the third time that 
Llewelyn saw the folly of a further extension of mercy to 
a being so unworthy of it, and perceived the necessity for 
the preservation of the country's peace, of preventing the 
recurrence of any further abuse of his clemency ; therefore 
he no longer stood between his ferocious relative and the 
approaching destruction which ultimately overwhelmed 
him.* 

This generosity of character which so eminently distin- 
guished his early life did not decline either at the period of 
his middle life, or even of his advanced age, when the 
treachery and selfishness which he experienced might well 
have warranted a striking change in his conduct while 
dealing with such flagrant offenders as opposed him in his 
private and public character. 

When Reginald de Breos was united in marriage with 
Gwladys Ddu, the well-dowered daughter of Llewelyn, the 
prince loaded him with his favors ; so that he might naturally 
reckon on bis future faithfulness and friendship, independent 
of the ties of relationship. The reverse of these expectations, 
however soon followed. Reginald became the partizan of the 
English king, and turned his arms against his father-in-law. 
When this vacillating baron again shifted in disgust from 
his native banners, and the service of the despicable John, 
and sought the forgiveness of Llewelyn, he was received by 
him, like the prodigal in the Gospel, with open arms, and his 
former treacheries were overlooked and pardoned. On the 
death of John, when Henry III. ascended the throne, seem- 
ingly aware of the mercenary nature of the man, he sought 
to detach Reginald de Breos again from the interests of his 
father-in-law, by an offer of restoring to him his forfeited 
English estates. The worthy Reginald, with his usual 
inconstancy, once more swerved from the cause of Llewelyn, 
and once more when his Welsh estates were about to be lost 

* According to the Welsh chronicles, some time after this defeat and confine- 
ment, he once more unsuccessfully made head against his nephew, and with his 
son Owen was slain in his retreat to Conway. 



THE PRINCESS JOAN. 531 

to him, shamelessly sought his pardoD and favor. la our 
memoir of Gwladys Ddu, the wife of this noble weathercock 
we have stated in what manner the last reconciliation was 
effected, to which we refer the reader. The heartiness with 
which Llewelyn then accorded his forgiveness, and by his 
frank and open bearing put it again in Reginald's power to 
be ungrateful, indicates on the part of this generous prince 
a heart abounding with the charities of humanity; and a 
conduct, under very trying circumstances, that entitled him, 
even more than his gallant feats in arms, to the style of 
•' great;" so deservedly bestowed on him by his admiring 
countrymen. 

These instances perhaps would be sufficient to establish 
for Llewelyn the illustrious character we claim for him; but 
we might cite also three other memorable cases, wherein the 
exercise of his most prominent virtue had been manifested. 
He pardoned Joan repeatedly for the treasonable offences of 
conveying political intelligence to his great enemy her father, 
inimical to the interests of Wales, and concealed her 
delinquency from the nobles of the country. He pardoned 
a chieftain named Elys or Ellis, and restored his lands to 
him after they had been forfeited for sedition and rebellion : 
and under very irritating circumstances he pardoned 
Gwenwynwyn prince of Powys. After defeating him in 
battle, and seizing on his dominions, he restored the whole 
to him, when that crushed rebel made his submission and 
craved forgiveness and the restitution of his forfeited 
territories.* After sach signal proofs of his magnanimity, 
who can possibly be at a loss to account for the impulses 
which actuated the Prince of Wales to honor the mausoleum 
of his penitent departed queen? Partial or short-sighted 
historians, however, rather than concede this ennobling trait 
of character which eminently distinguished him, have sought 
every motive but the real one to account for the erection of 
the monastery over Joan's grave. 

While the smallest portion of the ruined fane marks the 
spot of this queen's interment, the intellectual traveller will 

* See Warrington's History of Wales, 2nd vol. — Reign of Llewelyn ab 
Iorwerth. 

2 w 2 



532 THE PRINCESS JOAN. 

look on it as the venerable fragment of an interesting tale, 
that has touched the hearts and drawn the sighs of thousands ; 
the crumbling monument of a strange event, in which the 
human charities of the olden day triumphed over the demons 
of vengeance, that had been too long in the ascendant 
While a taste prevails for the enjoyment of curious historie 
mementos, so long will the fragment of the ruin of Llanvaes 
monastery, scanty, rude, and unimposing as it is, remain an 
object of contemplation and melancholy association with a 
story of sad import, amidst the stormy period of the Welsh 
wars of patriotism and independence. 

To descend again to homely detail ; it is certain that what 
remains of the ruin of Llanvaes monastery, which once 
"enshrined" the grave of Llewelyn's lady, is only a small 
portion of the original structure and is said to have been 
the chapel Edward Pugh in his Cambria Depicta remarks, 
"whatever might have been its appearance in its original 
state, it is certain that at present it holds forth no temptation 
to the artist; it has been converted into a barn, and is 
precisely of that same common appearance." The history 
of this fane is as fragmentary as the ruin itself, and 
correspondingly brief. On its erection, it was consecrated 
by Bishop Howel of Bangor, and dedicated to Saint 
Francis.* At the subjugation of Wales the better part of 
it was burnt during the insurrection of Madoc the natural 
son of Llewelyn ab Griffith, who could not be supposed to 
regard with much reverence the monument of a princess 
whose influence in life had been so injurious to his race. 
Soon after, when Edward II. visited the spot, and personally 
witnessed the sufferings of the impoverished brotherhood of 
friars, who were sheltered beneath the poor remains of the 
monastery which still stands, he feelingly remitted the taxes 
claimable from them and due to himself; a proof that this 
unpopular English king was not without a redeeming share 
of the gentler charities of humanity; a favorable trait 
* Pennant states, "I am informed that on the farm of Cremlyn Monach, 
once the property of the Friars, is cut on a great stone the effigies of its patron 
St. Francis ; and that his head is also cut on the stone of a wall in the street 
of Beaumaris, to which al! passengers were required to pay their respects, under 
pain of a forfeit. 



THE PRINCESS JO AN. 533 

scarcely acknowledged by the national historians, addiug'to 
the affecting interest connected with the fate of the most 
unfortunate of sovereigns. When the grievances of Owain 
Glyndwr induced him to oppose Henry IV. the friars of 
this monastery, like the Franciscans generally throughout 
the principality, sided with the Welsh chieftain. To avenge 
himself for their notorious partiality, when that king passed 
in hostile array through this country, he put to the sword 
several of the friars who were represented as the most 
zealous in the cause of Owen, took the rest prisoners, and 
partially burnt the monastery. Henry V. with the mag- 
nanimity which graced his princely character, somewhat 
repaired the injuries done to the buildings by his father, and 
restored the poor friars to the home from which they had 
been banished. At the dissolution of religious houses 
Henry VIII. sold it, together with the farm of Cremlyn 
Monach, tythes, &c, to one of his favorite courtiers. The 
son of a Danish king, lord Clifford, and other eminent 
barons and knights who fell in the wars with the Welsh 
were buried here. Among these men of blood was interred 
one of pacific celebrity whose memory is dearer to his 
countrymen than a host of mere warriors. The renowned 
bard Griffith Grygg was buried here. He was the con- 
temporary and friend of the still more celebrated bard 
Davydd ab Gwilym ; and died about the year 1370. The 
stone coffin of the princess Joan is in itself the subject of a 
curious piece of history. 

When the monastery passed into the possession of the 
bluff Harry Tudor's courtier, that worthy and his myrmidons 
not satisfied with turning out the poor friars, and ransacking 
every nook of the building in search of the precious metals 
or more precious gems of jewellery, in every conceivable 
place above ground, proceeding next to glut the cravings of 
avarice by treasure-hunting in the bowels of the earth among 
the wrecks and horrors of decaying human bodies. Accord- 
ingly the honored and probably costly, shrine of the lady of 
this memoir was invaded and stripped. Among other 
instances of sacrilegious and wanton barbarity, her coffin 
was disinterred ; and the mouldered remains of its occupant 



534 THE PRINCESS JOAN. 

which had rested there two hundred and ninety three years, 
was turned out, and scattered amidst the common earth of 
the grave yard. In after time this sculptured stone chest 
or coffer was removed into the bed of a neighbouring brook, 
where for two hundred and fifty years it ministered to the 
service of horses and cattle, in the character of a watering 
trough. Probably our modern political sect, the utilitarians, 
might insist on the appropriateness of its station, as a fixture 
there, to the end of time, and quarrel with the state assigned 
to it on its next removal. However, the venerating eye of 
taste and feeling glanced upon this vestige of buried ages, 
and suggested a discontinuance of the "vile uses" for which 
it had so long served an ignoble vassalage. It w r as of late 
years discovered by lord Bulksly, and removed by him to his 
seat of Baron Hill. There, on a select spot of the beautiful 
lawn this British sarcophagus of eventful history has been 
treated as an interesting historical relic, connecting our own 
times with those of the past. Once more, though empty 
now, it has been in a manner again enshrined ; for its present 
noble guardian has caused an elegant gothic building to be 
erected over it ; a fane of beauty that might be denominated 
a petile temple worthy of its encyclopedian claim to 
memorable distinction. The lid of this monumental coffer 
has also been discovered, and is attached to it in its present 
situation. The whole was evidently formed as much for 
durability as ornament ; and in every sense well has it 
answered the intentions of the original projector. The 
sides, ends, and bottom, are about four inches thick. From 
the cavity within, the princess appears to have been about 
five feet six or seven inches high, sixteen inches over the 
shoulders, and nine inches deep in the chest. The coffin 
lid (of which there is a drawing in Pugh's Cambria Depicta,) 
is boldly carved, with tasteful branching ornaments; and the 
upper end is especially so, being adorned with a female bust, 
with upraised hands and a fine face, supposed to be a likeness 
of the princess Joan, envelloped in the head drapery of 
a nun. 






THE LADY MATILDA DE LONGSPEE, 

COUNTESS OF SALISBURY, GRAND-DAUGHTER OF PRINCE LLEW- 
ELYN AB IORWERTH, WIDOW OF WILLIAM DE LONGSPEE, 
EARL OF SALISBURY, WIFE JOHN GIFFARD OF BRIMSFIELD, 
AND COUSIN OF PRINCE LLEWELYN,, AB GRIFFITH, THE 
LAST NATIVE PRINCE OF WALES. 

The name of this generous woman is endeared to posterity 
on account of the part she took on the death of her kinsman, 
the prince Llewelyn ab Griffith, and her strenuous endea- 
vours to save the hero's body from the barbarous mangle- 
ment of the English soldiery, and to obtain for him chris- 
tian burial. Matilda was the only daughter and heiress of 
Walter de Clifford, govenor of the castles of Carmarthen 
and Cardigan by his second wife Margaret, daughter of 
Llewelyn ab Iorwertb, and cousin to the deceased prince. 
She was first married to William de Longspee, the second 
earl of Salisbury of that name. She sometimes lived in 
Clifford castle in Herefordshire, and at other times at Bron- 
lly's castle in Brecknockshire. On the death of her first 
husband, she married John Giffard of Brimsfield in Glou- 
cestershire; who in her right became seized of these pos- 
sessions. At this critical period of the war between Edward 
L and Llewelyn, he was so unhappily situated that notwith- 
standing this family connexion of his wife's, he was com- 
pelled by his allegiance to his sovereign to become one of 
the leaders of the English troops by whom Llewelyn was 
defeated and slain. 

Incidental to our brief notice of this lady, we embrace 
what has long been vainly sought for by the public — a 

correct; ,, acc ount °f ^ e P2^H£^lH s anc * * ne El£S e ^ wnere tne 

last native sovereign of Wales died in battle ; in the neigh- 
bourhood of the town of Builth, Breconshire. It has singu- 
larly happened, that every writer, whether historian, poet, 
or tourist, who has hitherto undertaken to inform the public 
of the closing scene of prince Llewelyn ab Griffith's heroic 



636 THE LADY MATILDA DE LONGSPEE* 

exertions to liberate his country from the intrusion and 
tyranny of foreigners — every man of them, with one solitary 
exception — was signally incompetent to the task — simply, 
from their personal ignorance of the locality which they 
attempted to describe. That exception was Theophilus 
Jones, author of the " history of the town and county of 
Brecknock."* As that bulky and expensive work in three 
quarto volumes, is not very accessible to the public, we shall 
avail ourselves of his statements, coupled with our own, 
from a thorough knowledge of _eY.eEjLj.nch of the ground in 
question. To impress the public with a full reliance on the 
accuracy of the account here presented, be it observed, 
Theophilus Jones was a native, of the neighbourhood of 
Llangammarch village, six miles above the scene to be 
described ; and the^editor of the present work, of the town 
o f Builth which is situated three miles below Cwm Llew- 
elynT^The clear and minute manner with which the former 
has traced his description, is founded, not only on his fa- 
miliarity with the country, but with every tradition and 
historic record extant, bearing on the subject; and there- 
fore, the following may be depended upon, as a faithful 
transcript of long misrepresented facts." 

In the year 128 I, a war commenced between Edward I. 
and Llewelyn, which the humanity of John Peckham arch- 
bishop of Canterbury endeavoured to prevent; he even 
undertook a journey into Wales for that purpose, heard with 
patience and apparently without prejudice, the complaints 
of Llewelyn, dictated in language which would not disgrace 
the orators of any age or country, and almost admitted the 
truth of his assertions and the force of his arguments, seemed 
to feel for the injuries of the prince and principality, and re- 
turned to England in expectation that they would be 
re- dressed ; but the die was now thrown, and the reso- 
lution of Edward irrevocably fixed. A wise and sound 

* On recollection two other exceptions may b? made ; one in favour of the 
latest History of Wales, written in Welsh, by the Rev. Thomas Price, (Carnu- 
hanoc.) vicar of Cwm-du, and the other, an unpublished History of the County 
of Radnor, by the Rev. William Jenkins Rees, rector of Cascob. However, 
both these authors derive their information respecting this event partly from 
Theophilus Jones. 



THE LADY MATILDA DE LONGSPEE. 537 

policy, productive at the time, it is true, of calamities that 
may be deplored, and outrages which must be condemned, 
yet ultimately tending to promote the peace and happiness 
of both countries, suggested to this enterprizing monarch 
the necessity of uniting Wales with England, and the hatred 
of a rival in arms, as well as in talents, though inferior in 
force and extent of dominions, confirmed him in his deter- 
mination. Llewelyn ab Griffith had frequently, and indeed 
recently, foiled him in his attempts to subjugate the rough 
native of the barren mountains, and had formerly sent him 
bootless back to the fat pastures of England, if not with 
disgrace at least with mortification and disappointment; 
but that persevering potentate, skilled as he was in every 
branch of military tactics then known in Europe or in Asia, 
returned to the charge, and deaf to the representatives of 
the illfated Llewelyn, sent the primate back with proposals 
so humiliating, that they were (as he of course concluded 
they would be,) rejected with indignation* One of these 
proposals was, that the prince of Wales should desert his 
subjects, and submit to receive a pension of one thousand 
pounds a year in England. Llewelyn answered with great 
spirit, that if he were base enough to accept of it such was 
the honest pride of his people, that they would not suffer 
him to enjoy it, or permit him to descend so far below his 
rank. Here the archbishop, whose conduct hitherto was 
so amiable, lost at once the high character he had acquired. 
Intimidated by the power, or compelled by what perhaps 
he thought his duty to his sovereign, he not only conde- 
scended to convey terms which he knew to be unreasonable, 
and only calculated to wound the feelings of an injured 
prince, but he absolutely, when they were not approved of, 
thought it necessary to employ the censures of the church, 
and to send Llewelyn and all his adherents to the devil, for 
what he called their invincible obstinacy. 

Both sides were prepared for war ; the first efforts of the 
"Welsh prince were successful : a considerable body of the 
English having crossed the strait,* or narrow channel be- 
tween Anglesea and Carnarvonshire were cut to pieces ; 
* That arm of the sea called the Strait of MenaL 



538 THE LADY MATILDA DE L0NGSPEE. 

and Llewelyn over-ran Cardiganshire, and great part of 
Carmarthenshire ; but the fortitude, the perseverance, the 
talents and the forces of Edward, where he commanded in 
person, were irresistible ; his banners were " fanned by the 
crimson wing of conquest, wherever they waved ;" a retreat 
therefore to the almost inaccessible heights and fastnesses of 
Snowdon was the only expedient left to the Britons for 
avoiding present death or future slavery. This was adopted, 
and Llewelyn might have remained some time secure from 
attack, unless his supply of provisions was intercepted ; of 
this disaster he seems to have been apprehensive, and in 
order therefore, if possible, to prevent it, and to distract the 
attention of Edward, who was at Conway, he marched with 
a small body of men to Montgomery, and from thence into 
Radnorshire, where, as well as in Brecknockshire, he had a 
considerable number of friends ; for he was the idol of his 
countrymen, or as an old chronicle describes him " he was 
the captayne, the prayse, the law, and the light of nations." 
The correspondence he held in this part of the country, 
was by some means or other, made known to the English 
court, and it was to discover his intrigues and to counteract 
his designs, as well as to fasten upon his lordship of Breck- 
nock, that Humphrey de Bohun was now sent down into 
this country. Unfortunately for the prince of Wales, he 
was too successful in both the objects of his mission. 
Llewelyn's friends were either intimidated or persuaded to 
desert him, his enemies were encouraged, and a conside- 
rable force raised to oppose him. Since the death of the 
last William de Breos, his widow and son-in-law possessed 
little more than a nominal dominion over this country : the 
descendants of the Norman knights preserved an attachment 
to the family of their seignior, or lord paramount, but we 
have just seen, the Welsh inhabitants of the town of Breck- 
nock itself, the seat of his government lately submit volun- 
tarily to their favorite hero and native chief, while Hum- 
phrey de Bohun, the father of the present Humphrey, in- 
volved as he was during the whole course of his life in 
continual troubles, and perpetual skirmishes and warfare, 
had neither power nor leisure to enforce the obedience of 



539 THE LADY MATILDA DE LONGSPEE. 

his tenants in the principality ; but the case was now widely- 
different ^ aided by the name and authority of the king of 
England, the arms or the arguments of Humphrey the son, 
prevailed with his dependants, and made even an appearance 
or attempt at resistance, folly. This complete change in 
the government and politics of the country, effected with 
much secresy, as well as expedition, was perhaps not per- 
fectly known to Llewelyn ; led by the promises, and flat- 
tered with the hopes of assistance held out to him by some 
men of power in the Hundred of Builth and the neighbour- 
hood, he ventured to march with his little army to Aber- 
edwy,* four milesf below Builth, where it is said he expected 
to have held a conference with some of his friends. Here, 
however he found himself fatally disappointed, for instead of 
allies and partizans, whom he was encouraged to look 
for, he perceived he was almost surrounded in the toils and 
trammels of his adversary. A superior force from Here- 
fordshire, having notice of his route, from some of the 
inhabitants of this countr, ^oproached under the command 
of Edmund Mortimer and John Giffard."]: 

[Here we must step in between the reader and the author 
whom we have thus far quoted, to explain some points too 
slightly indicated. Llewelyn, although the sovereign of 
North Wales only seems to have been the possessor of 
Aberedwy castle; to which he had now repaired. This 
fortress was situated on an angle of ground formed by the 
river Wye running from the west, and the little river Edwy 
from the north, which falls into the former, a field's breadth 
below the castle. The Wye, on the northern or Radnorshire 
bank of which the castle stood, divides the two counties. 

* This place is usually called Aberedw, but doubtless incorrectly, as Aber- 
edwy, or the confluence of the Swift-water, bears a meaning, while tl^re ia 
none to the other. 

t Theophiius Jones says three miles, but what puts the question at rest is, 
that the four mile stone of the turnpike road on the Breconshire side of the 
Wye is opposite to the ruins of Aberedwy castle. On the Radnorshire side the 
distance from Builth may be about five miles, from the curvings of U\e path, 
according to the twining of the river. 

$ The second husband of the lady of this memoii. 

2 x 



540 THE LADY MATILDA DE LONGS PEE. 

Fronting this fortress, on the Breconshire side, stands the 
high and precipitous hill called Alltmawr,* where perhaps 
some of the scouts of Llewelyn might have been stationed, 
as it overlooks the entire country, to give notice of an 
enemy's approach, if time permitted such a military precau- 
tion. The highly flooded river however, would have made 
it perilous, if not impossible to cross for such an essential 
purpose. The approaching English were at this time between 
four and six miles off, down the Wye, on the Breconshire side, 
between Llys-wan and the village of Erwood. Here we 
return again to the account of Theophilus Jones.] 

*' Llewelyn, finding from their numbers that resistance 
would be in vain, fled with his men towards Builth."f 

[Strangers to the country require to be informed that his 
route was up the river, on the northern, or Radnorshire side 
of the Wye.] " And in order to deceive the enemy, as 
there was then snow upon the ground, he is said to have 
caused his horse's shoes to be reversed; but even this 
stratagem was discovered to them by a smith at Aberedwy, 
whose name as tradition says, was Madoc Goch min mawr, 
or Red Madoc with the wide mouth. Llewelyn arrived at 
the bridge over the Wye time enough to pass and break it 
down before his pursuers could come up with him ; here 
therefore they were completely thrown out, as there was no 
other bridge over the Wye at that time nearer than Bred- 
wardine, thirty miles below." 

[From the heights of Alltmawr, before referred to, the 
scouts of the English army might have witnessed the flight 
of the prince, as he took a westerly course, along the low- 
lands of Radnorshire, till the curves of the river, the woods, 
or high banks intervened between them, when, being lost to 
their view, they might have conceived his intention to be an 

* Allt-mawr signifies the great wooded precipice. 

+ Written in Welsh Buallt; from bu, ox en, and_aUt, a wooded precipice. 
This name refers to the syTvan'period wfieifthe wild cattle abounded and grazed 
amidst the original woods on the banks of the Wye. The nearest assimilation 
to the Welsh pronounciation would be Bee-alt, the Welsh 11 being unpronounce- 
able by an English tongue. In after time a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary- 
having been erected there, caused it to be called in Welsh Llanvair-ym-muallt, 
Mary Church of Oxenholt. 



THE LADY MATILDA DE LONGSPEE. 541 

escape into Montgomeryshire, and thence through North 
Wales into the fastnesses of Snowdon, which he had so lately 
left. It is evident they never thought that Builth Castle 
was his destination, for the most direct way thither would 
have been over the level top of Alltmawr ; instead of which 
they crossed the Wye into Radnorshire, at Caban Twm bach, 
with the intention of pursuing him from Aberedwy, in the 
route just mentioned ; but we shall here return to the Bre- 
conshire historian's account.] 

"Thus foiled and disappointed of their prize for the 
present, the English immediately returned downwards to a 
ford known to some of the party [eight miles below Builth 
and four below Aberedwy,] called Caban Twm Bach, or 
Little Tom's ferry-boat.* In the interim, it should seem, 
Llewelyn must have gained sufficient time to have distanced 
his followers, if he had made the best use of it, but he had 
not yet abandoned the expectation of meeting with assistance, 
and some hours may have been employed with the garrison 
of the castle of Builth, who awed by the approach of Morti- 
mer, refused to treat with, or support him, Stowe says "he 
was taken at Builth castle, where using reproachful words 
towards the Englishmen, Sir Roger le Strange ran upon him 
and cut off his head, leaving his dead body upon the ground." 
It is by no means improbable that he should have accused 
the garrison of Builth and the inhabitants of that country 
of perfidy, and (as Stowe says,) used reproachful words 
towards the English, he may also have bestowed upon the 
men of Aberedwy, as well as of Builth, the epithet which 
has stuck by them ever since,f but he certainly was not 
slain at Builth castle, or by Sir Roger le Strange, for being 
here repulsed by those from whom he expected support, and 
baffled in his attempts to reduce them to obedience, he pro- 
ceeded westward, up the vale cf Irvon on the southern side 
for about three miles. He then crossed the river a little 



* At present known as Tavern Twm Bach, from the public-house situated on 
the ^Radnorshire side of the ferry, near the mansion called the Screen, the 
residence of John Williams, Esq., and nearly opposite to the village of Erwood. 

t Bradwyr Aberedwy— Bradwyr Buallt— traitors of Aberedwy, traiton 
«f Builth. 



642 THE LADY MATILDA DE L0NGSPEE. 

below Llanynis church, over a bridge called Pont-y-coed, 
(bridge of the wood,) either with an intention of returning 
into North Wales through Llanganten, Llanavon vawr, and 
Llanwrthwl, and from thence into Montgomeryshire; or 
perhaps of joining his friends in Carmarthenshire and 
Pembrokeshire ; to oppose whom Oliver de Dyneham had 
been sent by king Edward. This passage once secured, he 
stationed the few troops who accompanied him on the 
northern side of the river, where, from the ground being 
more precipitous, and much higher than the opposite bank, 
and at the same time covered with wood, a handful of men 
were able to defend the bridge against a more numerous 
enemy. In this situation he preserved a communication 
with the whole of Breconshire; and as he supposed the 
river was at this season of the year impassable, he waited 
with confidence and security, while he commanded the pass, 
in hopes to hear farther from his correspondents, or in 
expectation of being reinforced from the westward. By 
these means the English forces gained sufficient time to 
come up with him, and appearing on the southern side of 
the Irvon, made a fruitless attempt to gain the bridge. Here 
they probably would have been compelled to abandon the 
pursuit, or at least Llewelyn might have escaped in safety 
to the mountains of Snow don, but for an accidental discovery 
made by the foe. A knight of the name of Sir Elias 
"Walwyn discovered a ford at some little distance, where a 
detachment of the English crossed the river, and coming 
unexpectedly upon the backs of the "Welsh at the bridge, 
they were immediately routed. Either in the pursuit, or 
while he was watching the motions of the main body of the 
enemy, who were still on the southern side of the river, the 
Welsh prince was attacked in a small dell, thence from him 
called Cwm Llewelyn, or Llewelyn's dingle, and slain by 
one Adam de Francton, who plunged a spear into his body, 
and immediately joined his countrymen in pursuit of the 
flying enemy. Polydore Virgil says, this battle was fought 
on the tenth of December, and Carte in his history of 
England, quoting the chronicle of Dunstable, asserts that 
the Welsh lost two thousand men in this engagement* 



THE L DY MATILDA DE LONGSPEE. 5 43 

When De Francton returned after the engagement, in hopes 
of plunder, he perceived that the person whom he had 
wounded, for he was still alive, was the prince of Wales; and 
on stripping him, a letter in cypher, an J his privy seal were 
found on him. The Englishman, delighted with the dis- 
covery, immediately jguX pff his he ad, and sent it to king 
Edward at Rhyddlan castle. 

It was at this juncture that Matilda de Longspee's gener- 
ous interference, seconded by that of Edward Mortimer took 
place. It is probable that she was a visitor at^BuiJth^castle, 
and present when assistance was personally asked, and 
denied to the royal fugitive. Hearing the result of the 
battle, with all the affection of a near relative, and the noble 
sentiments of a British woman, she entreated that the corse 
of the fallen prince might be no further dishonored ; but 
that it might obtain the rites of sepulture in consecrated 
ground. But no attention was paid to her request; the 
body of the unfortunate prince was dragged by the soldiers 
about half a mile from the spot on which he had fallen in 
Cwm Llewelyn, towards Builth, and buried him in a place 
where the two roads now divide ; one leading from Builth 
to Llangammarch, and the other to Llanavon. This place 
has ever since been called Cefn-y«bedd, (pronounced Keven 
a bathe,) signifying the back of the grave ; and in after years 
the spot was more particularly marked by a farm house 
being built upon it, which bears the same name. 

But the exertions of the noble minded Matilda de Long- 
spee to obtain christian burial for Llewelyn did not end 
here. The letter in cypher which was found upon the per- 
son of the slain prince was soon afterwards sent by Edward 
Mortimer to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was then 
at Pembridge in Herefordshire, to be forwarded to the king. 
The primate, in the course of conveying it to his Majesty, 
adds as much further intelligence as had reached him, from 
which it appears that dame Martha Longspee had interfered 
upon Llewelyn's death ; and had intreated that he might be 
absolved from the sentence of excommunication, and his 
body buried in a consecrated place. This request Mortimer, 
with the gallantry of a soldier, and the affection of a relation 
2x2 






544 THE LADY MATILDA DE L0NGSPEE. 

(though that kinsman was an enemy) warmly seconded, by- 
stating an assurance he had received from those who were 
present when Llewelyn expired, that before his death he 
called for a priest, and that a white monk who happened to 
be near, chaunted mass to him, previous to his dissolution. 
But the request of Matilda, and representations of Mortimer 
were utterly disregarded (says Theophilus Jones) and the 
remains of Llewelyn instead of being bones of contention* 
among the loyal inhabitants of York and Winchester (as his 
brother David's afterwards became,) were permitted to rot 
at Cefn-y-bedd. 

Theophilus Jones thus concludes his record of Llewelyn's 
death and burial, and it is hoped there are but few, if any, 
but will respond to his sentiments. 

" Those who have attentively read the history of Llewelyn, 
of whatever country they may be, will I trust lament the 
fate, and sigh while they contemplate the fall of the last and 
greatest of the Welsh princes. His grandfather Llewelyn 
ab Iorwerth had courage and considerable talents, but he 
was savage in manners and variable in politics, fickle in his 
attachments, and brutal in his revenge.f During the greater 
part of his life he- had a mere driveller to oppose; but the 
last Llewelyn had to contend with an Alexander, supported 
by superior numbers and revenues. In short he had all the 
virtues of his ancestor, with scarcely any of his vices. He 
had infinitely more difficulty to encounter; and when he was 
favored with the smiles of fortune, he owed them entirely to 
is own merit and exertions." 

Warrington informs us, upon the authority of the annals of Waverley, 
that when David ab Griffith's quarters were condemned by the sentence of the 
courtiers of Edward I. at Shrewsbury, to be placed in different parts of 
the kingdom, tbe cities of York and Winchester contended with a savage 
eagerness for the right shoulder of this unfortunate prince; and that the honor 
was decided in favor of Winchester ! Well might the indignant historian of 
Breconshire exclaim, " can this be true ?" 

t We utterly dissent from tbis, as an historial view of the character of 
Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, which it is trusted the present writer has throughly 
disproved in his vindication of that prince in the memoir of Joan, queen of 
Llewelyn ab Iorwerth. 



w 



SAINT MONAGELLA. 

Although this Saint and Princess was of Irish birth, as 
Wales afforded her a place of refuge, and became the cho- 
sen scene of her ministry, and miracles, as well as her place 
of final rest, we may legitimately claim her as an adopted 
daughter of our land. 

(Pennant, in his tour through Montgomeryshire relates, 
" at about two miles distant from Llangnnog,*.! turned up 
a small valley to the right, to pay my devotions to the shrine 
of St. Monacella, or, as the Welsh style her, Melangell. 
Her legend relates that she was the daughter of an Irish 
monarch, who had determined to marry her to a nobleman 
of his court. The princess had vowed celibacy. She fled 
from her father's dominions, and took refuge in this place, 
where she lived fifteen years without seeing the face of man > 
Brochwel Yscythrog, prince of Powys, being one day a 
hare-hunting, pursued his game till he came to a great 
thicket ; when he was amazed to find a virgin of surprising 
beauty , engaged in deep devotion, with the hare he had 
been pursuing uj3j&er_her robe, boldly facing the dogs, who 
retired to a distance, l^wling, notwithstanding all the efforts 
of the sportsmen to make them seize their prey. Even 
when the huntsman blew his horn, it stuck to his lips. 
Brochwell heard her story; and gave to God andh^r a 
parcel of lands to be a sanctuary to all who fled there. He 
desired her to found an abbey on the spot. She did so, 
and died abbess of it, in a good old age ; she was buried in 
the neighbouring church called Pennant, (Brook-head,) and 
from her distinguished by the addition of Melangell. Her 
hard bed is shown in the cleft of a neighbouring rock. Her 
tomb was in a little chapel, or oratory, adjoining to the 
church, and now used as a vestry room. This room is still 
called cell y bedd t (cell of the grave) ; but her reliques, as 

* In Welsh written Llangynog. The parish was so named from the churcto 
dedicated to Cynog the martyr, son of Brychan Brecheiniog. 



546 SAINT MONACELLA. 

well as her image, have been long since removed: but I 
think the last is still to be seen in the churchyard. The 
legend is perpetuated by some rude wooden carvings of the 
Saint, with numbers of hares scuttling to her for protection. 
She properly became their patroness. They were called 
Wyn Melangell; — (Monacella's lambs.) Till the last cen- 
tury, so strong a superstition prevailed, that no person 
would kill a hare in the parish ; and even later, when a 
hare was pursued by dogs, it was firmly believed, that if any 
one cried "God and St. Monacella be with thee," it was 
sure to escape. ] 

" This valley," continues Pennant, is very picturesque, 
inclosed by hills on all sides except its en ranee ; watered 
by the Tanat which springs not far oft. The upper end is 
bounded by two vast precipices, down which at times fall 
two great cataracts; between them juts out the great and 
rude promontory of Mo el du Mawr, (Great Black Hill,) 
which almost divides the precipices into equal parts : and 
altogether formed a fine and solemn retreat for devotees." 

In an age of advanced intellect, like the present, many 
will smile at the simple superstition which could induce a 
sisterhood of gentle minded females to become the followers 
of such a mild enthusiast as this Monacella. But assu- 
redly, if we venture to look through the surface into the 
heart of this matter, we shall find nothing to exc te the 
smile of ridicule. Monacella's mission was one of mercy — 
and sweetly in concord with the actuating spirit of the 
meek founder of our faith. She appeared in a rude era of 
violent contention and bloodshed; at a period when the 
savage triumphs of might over right, of strength over weak- 
ness, and of ferocity and selfishness over every better 
feeling, made this earth the horrid arena of inconceivable 
devilishness. In such a state of vitiated humanity, super- 
stition alone could gain a subduing hold of man's nature ; 
and such a legend as this, of Monacella's protection of hares 
engendered a passion for gentleness, hitherto unknown to 
the times. — What a sentiment, what a lesson of pity and 
protection to the weak and persecuted, was here inculcated ! 
for it would be worse than childish to suppose that this 



SAINT MONACELLA. 547 

devout woman had nothing more in view than bettering the 
condition of hares. The sentiment of compassion once 
kindled in the rude bosoms of the hunters and destroyers, 
whether of animal or of their own kind, she may have fore- 
seen, would become an all-pervading principle, when hal- 
lowed by the auspices of religion. 

Brochwell Yscythrog, the prince of Powys who gave the 
church lands to Monacella, stands recorded in history as a 
sovereign far more pious than potent; and his failure in 
protecting his country against the invasion of Ethelfridd, 
king of Northumbria, has subjected his memory to the cen- 
sures of posterity. Pennant, in his remarks on the history 
of Chester, says : — " the fate of this city was at length de- 
cided in the year 607, when Ethelfrid king of Northumbria 
resolved to add this rich tract to his dominions. He was 
opposed by Brochwel Yscythrog, king of Powys ; who col- 
lected hastily a body of men, probably depending on the 
intervention of heaven ; for that end he called to his aid one 
thousand two hundred religious, from the great convent of 
Bangor, and posted them on a hill, in order that be might 
benefit by their prayers. Ethelfrid fell in with this pious 
corps, and, finding what their business was, put them to the 
sword without mercy* He made an easy conquest of Broch- 
wel, who, as the Saxon chronicle informs us, escaped with 
about fifty men." 

It was on this terrible massacre that Sir Walter Scott 
wrote the following beautiful Welsh melody, entitled, *' the 
march of the monks of Bangor." It will be observed that 
the poet describes the awful event to have taken place while 
the grand procession of monks and nuns were on their ill- 
omened march. On the contrary, history narrates it to 
have occurred while the whole assemblage were on their 
knees in act of most fervent prayer. 

" When the heathen trumpets clang 
Round beleaguer'd Chester rang, 
Veiled nun and friar grey 
March'd from Bangor's fair abbeye : 
High their holy anthem sounds, 
Cestria's vale the hymn rebounds, 
Floating down the sylvan Dee, 

misere Domini J 



548 BAINT MONACELLA. 

On the long procession goes, 
Glory round their crosses glows, 
And the virgin-mother mild 
In their peaceful banner smiled ; 
"Who could think such saintly band 
Doom'd to feel unhallow'd hand? 
Such was the divine decree, 

O misere Domini ! 

Bands that masses only sung, 
Hands that censers only swung, 
Mel the northern bow and bill, 
Heard the war-cry loud and shrill : 
Woe to Brochmael's feeble hand, 
Woe to 01frid's+ bloody brand, 
Woe to Saxon cruelty, 

misere Domini ! 

"Weltering amid wariors slain 
Spurn'd by steeds with bloody mane, 
Slaughter'd down by heathen blade 
Bangor's peaceful monks are laid: 
Word of parting rest unspoke, 
Mass unsung and bread unbroke, 
For their souls for charity, 

Sing misere Domini 1 

Bangor ! o'er the murder wail, 
Long the ruins told the tale ; 
Shatter'c towers and broken arch 
Long recall'd the woeful march ; 
On thy shrine no tapers burn, 
Never shall thy priests return ; 
The pilgrim sighs and sings for thee, 
misere Domini ! 

William of Malmsbury says, that in his time the extent 
of the ruins of the monastery bore ample witness to the 
desolation occasioned by the massacre, " tot semiruti parietes 
ecclesiarum, tot aufractus porticum, tanta turba ruderum 
quantum vix alibi cernas." 



yi 



1 



MOEVYTH OF MONA, 



DAUGHTER OF MADOC LAWGAM, THE CELEBRATED MISTRESS 
OF DAVID AB GWILYM, AND WIFE OF BWA BACH. 

" Morvyth of Mona, unfading thy wreath." 

The Island of Anglesea, famous as it has ever been for the 
reputed charms of its females, never gave birth to a beauty 
of equal celebiity with the heroine of our Memoir. From 
her name being mentioned in one of Davyth ab Gwilym's 
poems addressed to" Angharad," (the daughter of his patron, 
and relative Ivor Hael,) it is probable that he made her 
acquaintance very soon after he followed the former lady 
into Anglesea. Nay, it is even certain that he paid his 
addresses to her, as far as writing love poems went, at the 
same time that he professed himself to be the devoted ad- 
mirer both of Angharad and Deethgee. Failing in his suit 
with both those ladies, it is supposed that he then (for a 
while!) gave his entire services to the fair Morvyth. 

" Morvyth was the daughter of Madoc Lawgam, a gen- 
tleman of Anglesea, and proved, in every point of view the 
veryJLaura of our Cambrian Petrarch. His first interview 
with this lady was at Rhosyr, in Anglesea, where by some 
means he attracted her notice. He says in a poem on the oc- 
casion that he sent a present of wine to her, and she slighted 
the offer so much as to throw it over the servant who 
brought it. As this curious incident may suggest a very 
erroneous idea of the manners of that age, and of the light 
in which such gifts were viewed in the time of the poet, the 
following observations extracted chiefly from Mr. Godwin's 
life of Chaucer, will serve to give a more correct impression 
of the spirit of the bard's first present to the lady of his 
love. There is reason to believe that wine was often 
given as a token of honor and esteem, and as being a more 
delicate offering than a sum of money. It is not therefore, 
to be supposed, that it was always intended for the con- 
sumption of the person to whom it was sent. "I find," 



550 MORVYTK OF MONA. 

says Mr. Godwin, " a grant, or rather the confirmation of 
a grant of Edward III., in the first year of his reign, to 
Mary his aunt, daughter of Edward I. of ten tuns of wine 
per annum towards her sustenance. But the princess Mary 
was a votaress, and cannot be supposed to have wanted ten 
tuns of wine annually for her own consumption; and the 
phraseology of the grant (in subventum sustentationis suae,) 
seems to imply rather that it was a commodity to be given 
in exchange for other commodities, than to be consumed by 
the grantee. 

Chaucer, who was a contemporary of our bard, had a 
grant conferred upon him of a pitcher of wine per diem, to 
be delivered daily in the port of the city of London, by the 
king's chief butler, during the term of his natural life. This 
pension — for such in reality it was, is calculated by Mr. 
Godwin to be equivalent to an annuity of £180 in the 
present day. 

It is necessary to observe, that the wines then common 
in England and Wales were of a very different quality from 
those now in use amongst the higher classes in this coun- 
try ; and unless we keep this fact in view, we shall be apt 
to imagine that our ancestors were guilty of excesses that 
are not imputable to them. So far back as the year 1 154 
(on the accession of the Plantaganet race,) the English 
government gained possession of Bordeaux and some other 
important districts in the South West of France, which 
they retained, nearly without interruption for three cen- 
turies. Hence this kingdom was amply supplied with the 
light wines of France.* 

On the failure of Davyth ab Gwilym in his suit with 
Deethgee, it has been said that he devoted the entire service 
of his muse to the fair Morvyth. His last quoted biog- 
rapher says "Morvyth, our poet's other favorite received 
his addresses more graciously; and had it not been for 
untoward circumstances, over which she had no controul, 
the event of this attachment might have equalled his most 
sanguine expectations. He was ultimately united to her in 
a manner not uncommon in those days : they repaired to 
* Arthur James Johnes's life of Davyth ab Gwilym. 



MORVTTH OF MONA. 551 

the grove with their friend Madoc Benvras,* an eminent 
bard, who exercised the sacred functions on this occasion, 
in the presence only of the winged choristers of the woods ; 
one of which, the thrush, the bridegroom says, was the 
clerk. They now considered themselves as one, and their 
subsequent conduct confirmed it in every respect." They 
appear to have lived together most happily, till in an evil 
hour she was snatched from him, not by the hands of death, 
but those of her avaricious parents. "The relations of 
Morvyth disliking the union, encouraged a wealthy -decrepid 
old man Cunvrig Cynin, to become a rival of the bard ; and 
they concerted their plan so well as to take Morvyth away 
from the latter, and to get her formally married to Cynvrig 
Cynin agreeably to the rules of the church.f The new 
bridegroom with the assistance of her parents, bore her off 
to his dwelling called Brynllyn, situated on a hill so named, 
above the lake of Bala in Merionethshire. The disgust and 
mortification o? Morvyth at this most unhappy transition 
from the abode and embraces of a greatly beloved husband 
— for so, in fact she considered him, for the loathed com- 
pany of a most hideous and hateful tyrant, must have been 
immense. To render an idea of the contrast between the 
two, we give the picture of the poet as described by his 
biographer. 

"When Davyth ab Gwilym grew up to manhood, his 
handsome person and accomplishments rendered him a 
great favorite with the fair, in every part of the country. 
According to traditionary accounts, recorded in the age 
of Elizabeth, he was tall and of a slender make, with yellow 
liairJiowing about his shoulders in beautiful ringlets, "and 
he says himself that the girls instead of attending to their 
devotion, used to whisper at church that he had his sister's 
hair on his head. His dress was agreeable to the manner of 
the age, long trowsers,| close jacket, tied sound with a sash, 

* Benvras, or Fathead — what a name for an inspired poet ! 

t The original poems from No. 10 to 75, treat of this event. 

£ When the hody of Llewelyn ab Griffith, the last native prince of Wales 

was discovered in a dingle beside"*fne river Irvon, we are informed that it 

was identified by the official seal of the principality being found in his trowsers 

2 y 



552 MORVYTH OP MONA. 

suspending a sword of no inconsiderable length, and over the 
whole a loose' flowing gown trimmed with fur, with a round 
cap or bonnet on Ms head; these he took pains to make 
showy, for he was inclined to vie in that respect with the 
beaux of his time. Thus accomplished, he thought himself 
happier than the old Welsh princes, though they enjoyed 
the possession of a mansion in every district in Wales, as 
he fancied he might secure the affection of every beauteous 

maid." 

- 

The bard's mortification and grief for this most untoward 
event, and his inextinguishable love for Morvyth appear 
from several of his passionate poems, addressed to her at this 
period. These contain also numerous strokes of caustic 
ridicule against her decrepid spouse, upon whom he invaria- 
bly bestows the appellation of 13 wa* Bach, or Little Hunch- 
back. Notwithstanding the success of old Cynvrig Cynin 
in his abduction and marriage with Morvyth, the remainder 
of his life was spent in watchings and jealousy, which 
furnished a favorite subject for the muse of his rival; though 
it proved to him also a source of endless troubles, as, con- 
sidering Morvyth still his own, he missed no opportunity of 
procuring an interview, till at length he found means to_run 
away with her.* But after strict search the fugitives were 
found, and once more separated; and our bard being rigo- 
rously prosecuted by Hunchback, was fined in a very heavy 
penalty, which being unable to pay, he was imprisoned. 

In such esteem, however, was the poet held by his coun- 
trymen that the county of Glamorgan released him from 
confinement by discharging the fine. It is said that he had 
nearly taken Morvyth away a second time ; and a friend 
asking him if he would again run the hazard which such a step 
must expose him to, and which had once cost him so dearly, 
he answered — " yes I will, in the name of God and the men 

pocket. Thus nearly two hundred years later, we find Davyth ah Gwilym 
wearing a similar article of dress, at a... time when the English wore the trunk 
hose, or short breeches ; proving the difference of costume in the two nations 
iii those garments— a piece of historical information not unworthy record. 

* English readers are informed that Bwa is pronounced Boo-a. 

t See the original poems, Bo. 80, 81, 82. 






MORVYTH OF MONA. 553 

of Glamorgan !"* which became a proverb for a long time 
after. 

After the second loss of his lady love, the bard seldom 
failed to introduce Bwa Bach into all his poems to Mor- 
vyth, particularly from No. 76 to 90, wherein he is placed 
in many ludicrous situations, and several humorous adven- 
tures are related, which would be out of place in this 
memoir. Indeed the bard seems to have been so delighted 
with ridiculing his rival, as partly to forget his own loss, 
and to amuse himself by laughing even at his own lost 
. gpouse. 

"We must now leave Morvyth as the lawful wife of Bwa 
Bach, only observing that her faithful bard continued his 
attachment, and his muse was ever constant in her praise. 
Hence he has been compared to Petrarch ; and it must be 
allowed that in the fervor of his homage to the lady of his 
heart, the Italian poet did not surpass the Demetian Night- 
ingale,f who composed one hundred and forty-seven poems 
to his beloved Morvyth. In another account of his pro- 
ductions addressed to this lady, we are informed that one 
hundred and nine of his poems, and those generally of 
greater length than what Petrarch dedicated to Laura, are 
preserved ; and we know from his own authority, that he 
wrote thirty- eight more on this favorite and inexhaustible 
theme. It is generally considered, because the poet him- 
self calls one of his poems the one hundred and forty- 
seventh that he wrote no more ; but this is by no means 
a necessary conclusion. The poem indeed, which imme- 
diately follows in his works the one called the hundred and 
forty-seventh is entitled the last poem to Morvyth, and may 
therefore be presumed to have been written subsequently. 
It is probable then, that the whole number dedicated to 
his beloved Morvyth considerably exceeded one hundred 
and forty -seven. 

* In Welsh the question and answer run : — A ae ef a hi a druted f uasai 
Iddo ? Af, (eb ef,) yn enw Duw a gwyr Morganwg. — David Jones of Llanvair's 
Collection of British Poetry. 

+ Davy ab Gwilym's native district is ealled Dyved in Welsh, and latinized, 
Demetia ; whence his poetical appellation of Eos Dyved, or the Demetian 
Nightingale. 




r- 



554 MOEVYTH OF MONA. 

The profligacy and recklessness which seem to have dis- 
tinguished a portion of this poet's life, may be dated from, 
and attributed to his disappointment in love. " Every one," 
says our bard has his favorite toy ;" and on a whimsical 
occasion he tells us, he was the toy of the fair ;* and bis 
temper, full of ardour and levity as it was, naturally disposed 
him to make an extravagant use of the high esteem in which 
he stood with his countrywomen. Tradition has preserved 
a ludicrous instance of his frolics in this respect, which, 
whether authentic or not, is perfectly consistent with the 
powerful but reckless vein of humour that pervades his 
poems. If the following detail is really true, in addition to 
his other honorary appellations, he deserves to be designated 
the Welsh Don Juan. 

"Davyth ab Gwilym — so runs the tale — paid his ad- 
dresses to no fewer than twenty-four damsels at the same 
time. Having an inclination, on a particular occasion, to 
divert himself at their expense, he made an appointment 
with each, unknown to the rest, to meet him under a certain 
tree, at a specified hour, fixing the same time for all. Our 
poet himself took care to be on the spot before the period 
of meeting, and, having ascended the tree, he had the satis- 
faction of finding that not one of his faithful inamoratos 
failed in her engagement. When they were all assembled, 
feelings of inquisitive wonder took the place of the gentler 
emotions, to which it is probable they had before yielded ; and 
when at length the stratagem, of which they had been the 
dupes became known, the only sentiment that inspired the 
group was that of indignant vengeance against the unfortunate 
bard, which they failed not to vent in reproaches loud and 
long. The author of the plot who from his ambuscade above, 
had perceived the gathering storm, had recourse to his muse 
for an expedient to allay it, or at least to divert its fury 
from the object to which it was at first directed. Emer- 

* See the original poem, No. 88. 

No phair ddyn deg, waneg wedfi, 
Grogi .uillyn gwragedd I 

See also No. 103 and 158. 



Let her who most frequent I've kiss'd here alone, 
(She'll find me resign'd !; then cast forth the first stone. 






MORVYTH OF MONA. 555 

ging partially from the foliage in which he had been 
enveloped, he replied to the menaces of the disappointed 
fair ones, — which even extended to his life, in the following 
couplet : — * 

0. ) 

The effect was such as our poet had, perhaps anticipated. 
Taunts and recriminations were bandied about by the exas- 
perated assembly, who forgot their common resentment 
against the bard in this new cause for contention. The 
tradition adds, that the contriver of the stratagem had the 
good fortune to escape unmolested, in the confusion of the 
conflict, being thus indebted to his muse for his protection^ 
from a catastrophe of no very agreeable nature. 

Of the lady of our memoir nothing more remains to be 
added except that she is supposed to have died many years 
before her admirer ; but Morvyth, the ill-fated and never 
to be forgotten Morvyth, while she lived, called forth with 
the greatest frequency the most fervant adorations of his 
muse, and in his very last production, long after her decease, 
she is mentioned with affectionate tenderness, as his prin- 
cipal loss of life's felicities. 

Our closing notices of Davy th ab Gwilym and his poeti- 
cal works, naturally follow the decease of the fair object 
which inspired his choicest productions, and shall conclude 
this memoir. 

Again we^ recur to his last biographer's recorded 
researches. He says : — "we may take it for granted 
that Davyth ab Gwilym must have lived in habits of inti- 
macy with the poets of his time, amongst whom many, 
perhaps, were to be found not insensible to the charms of 
the mead horn ; but he does not seem to have been much 
devoted to it himself, for among those who were, we find it 

* Arthur J. Johnes's translation is more elegant, but is further from the 
brevity of the original. 

" Oh let the fair and gentle one ! 
Who oftest by the summer sun, 
To meet me in these shades was won — 
Let her strike first, aud she will find 
The poet to his fate resign'd ?" 

2 y 2 



556 MORVYTH OF MONA. 

was a custom to impose upon him, when they got him into 
their company." 

Davyth was equally attached to friendship and the muse 
— two contemporary poets were his intimate companions. 
One was Madoc Benvras, who officiated as priest at his 
merry marriage with Morvyth in the grove, who had a soul 
congenial with that of our bard, and like him was a favorite 
with his fair countrywomen. The other was Griffith Greeg* 
of Anglesea, a bard of considerable genius and learning. 
Between Davyth ab Gwilym and the latter there appears 
to have been a rival ship for fame, which gave rise to a 
poetical contention, that began in consequence of a poem 
written by Griffith Greeg, ridiculing our bard for being so 
great a slave to the charms of Morvyth. This dispute pro- 
duced several masterly compositions, but unfortunately not 
without a considerable degree of acrimony between the 
rival bards, whfcm"" threatened to end in a total estrange- 
ment of one from the company of the other. When the 
affair had taken this unpleasant turn for some time, each 
party too stiff to give way to the other, one Bola Bayolj - 
laid a wager with a mutual companion that he would 
effect an accommodation between them. To bring about 
his purpose this person wenth into North "Wales, and indus- 
triously spread a report that Davyth ab Gwiiym, the De- 
metian bard was dead. On hearing this news, Griffith 
Greeg was so affected, that forgetting every other feeling in 
the poignancy of his grief, he composed an elegy, bewailing 
the supposed loss of his rival in the most affectionate terms. 
Bola Bayol having previously contrived to get a similar 
account of the death of Griffith Greeg circulated in South 
Wales, returned thither, and was pleased to find it had the 
same effect on Davyth ab Gwilym, who had also produced 
a very touching elegy on his rival's decease. Bola Bayol 
succeeded according to his expectation ; for the contending 
parties, on each discovering the real sentiments of his oppo- 
nent, and being brought to a delicate dilemma, though they 
laughed at the stratagem which had created it, from that 
time became warm friends. 

* In Welsh written Gruffydd Grug. 
+ In Welsh written JJoia Bauol; but both names are pronounced as above. 



MORVTTH OP MONA. 557 

Though Davyth ab Gwilym lived in an age deeply 
immersed in ignorance, yet it is obvious from his works 
that he was but little affected with the superstition of the 
times. He had very little veneration for the monks ; nor 
would he bend in the least to the authority of the priest- 
hood in general — in those points that were derogatory to 
an enlightened mind. On the contrary he took every 
opportunity to show that he held them in contempt and 
ridicule. In his poems addressed to the monks and friars 
he indulges in a spirit of unlimited vituperation. He begins 
one poem addressed to a grey brother who had tried to 
persuade Morvyth to become a nun, with the following 
ironical allusions to the suppose merit of gifts bestowed 
on the religious orders : — 

** Long life — fair journeys — offerings rare, 
Fall to the chatt'ring raven's share ! 
The figure like a shadow — those 
Deserve not peace who are his foes ! 
From Eome he comes with naked feet, 
And tresses like a thorny nest ! 
In petticoat of net- work drest, 
He walks the world — oh pastor meet, 
A parish with wise words to greet 1" 

The poem No. 79 addressed to St. Dwynwen is an admi- 
rable satire on the invocation of Saints. In it the bard 
prays that this female Saint would be his Llatai, to procure 
him a meeting with Morvyth. In the poem page 432 of 
the original work, the object of his satire must have been a 
Dominican friar, for he calls him " Ffriw Sain Dominig." 
He terms him an old crow, always flying with his face 
towards heaven, a brazen bell that incessantly pesters you 
with its noise, &c. 

Mr. Arthur Johnes continues, "yet, notwithstanding 
the freedom with which the bard ridicules the immoraj_ 
lives of the clergy, and the irreverence with which he occa- 
sionally treats even the rites of the church, I do not conceive 
that we are warranted in ascribing to him views of Chris- 
tianity more enlightened than were generally entertained 
by the more intelligent part of his contemporaries. The 
fourteenth century, though signalized by the birth of 



' 558 MORVYTH OF MONA. 

Wicliffe — whose doctrines were looked upon with no unfa- 
vorable eye by the bulk of the English nation, — was not 
an age in which many instances are recorded of a positive 
rejection of the doctrines, and a formal departure from the 
communion of the church of Rome. This period is remark- 
able rather as the era of the first awakening of the human 
mind, which exhibited itself in a certain vague hostility to 
the pretensions of the Romish See, rather than in any clear 
and consistent objections to its authority. The great ma- 
jority even of the learned, though they had become in some 
measure sensible of the thraldom in which they had been 
so long held, had not yet acquired courage to throw off the 
yoke. Hence it is, that we often perceive in the literary 
remains of those days, that strange mixture of satire and 
superstition which is so prominent a feature of the eccle- 
siastical allusions of Davyth ab Gwilym. In this respect 
also, he bears a close resemblance to Chaucer. In their 
religious sentiments both these poets are in fact, to be re- 
garded rather as representatives of the views of the more 
enlightened men of their age, than in the light of original 
and independent thinkers. I may here remark that the 
similarity that so frequently occurs between the ideas and 
imagery of the Cambrian bard and the great father of 
English poetry, constitutes one of the chief curiosities of 
the remains of Davyth ab Gwilym. 

The influence of the external splendors of the Roman 
Catholic Church is not more apparent in the pages of Chau- 
cer than in the remains of the Cambrian bard. Her doc- 
trines, it is true, retained but a faint and wavering hold on 
his understanding, but her gorgeous and varied ceremonies 
supplied a fund of imagery that was highly acceptable to 
his imagination. Illustrations and similes drawn from the 
accompaniments of the worship of the Roman Catholic 
Church, are profusely scattered through his writings, and 
allusions to her rites pervade his poetry. But those orna- 
ments are sometimes introduced with a tone of levity that 
sufficiently evinces how powerfully the fancy may be affected 
by showy pageants, which leave the conscience and the 
heart untouched. The fondness displayed by Davyth ab 



MORVTTH OF MONA. 559 

Gwilym for the embellishments of the church, forms a sin- 
gular contrast with the acrimony with which he so often 
assails her priesthood. In the one instance we see the 
taste of the poet, in the other we recognise the feelings of 
the man. It is highly interesting to observe that the bard's 
fiercest invectives are directed against the eleemosynary 
clergy — the Franciscan and Dominican friars — who are 
also the objects of Chaucer's bitterest satire ; and in one 
poem it is observable that he appears to insinuate against 
these orders the same charges that are advanced by his 
contemporary — an abject devotion to the Romish See — and 
hypocritical profession of religion, combined with the servile 
arts and low frauds of the common mendicant. 

Of the latter years of our bard we have only a general 
account, which states that they were consumed in his native 
parish of Llanbadarn, where also bad been his paternal 
home. He appears to have survived his relations, his 
patrons, and his fair Morvyth. His uncle and kind pro- 
tector, Llewelyn ab Gwilym, he had lost in early life, by 
the hand of an assassin, and the bard bewails this event in 
a pathetic elegy on the occasion. Still, so long as his gene- 
rous friend Ivor survived his house was a retreat to him 
from all oppression ; there he was entertained like the Lhree 
free guests in the court of Arthur. Indeed the poet seems 
to have felt the warmest affection for every member of the 
family of that good and hospitable chieftain. His melan- 
choly feelings at the loss of the friends of his youth, his 
patron, and the lady of his love — are pathetically described 
in a poem in which he invokes the summer to visit Glamor- 
ganshire with its choicest blessings.* After beautifully 
describing that fertile region under the influence of the 
serene messenger, his soul becomes suddenly overclouded— 
the grave of his friend is brought to his remembrance, and 
he concludes with an abrupt transition — (addressing the 
summer,) — truly characteristic of his 'peculiar style, and 
appropriate to the occasion. — 

* The Bard often expressed his gratitude for the generous contribution 
raised for him, to liberate Mm from prison by the men of Glamorgan ; and the 
poems No. 93 and 111 of the original, were composed particularly on the 



560 MORVYTH OF MONA. 

And thus mid all thy radiant flowers 
Thy thick'ning leaves and glossy bowers, 
The poet's task shall be to glean 
Roses and flow'rs that softly bloom, 
And trefoils wove in pavement green, 
With sad humility to grace 
His golden Ivor's resting place. 

When Davyth ab Gwilym became oppressed with age 
and a pilgrim, as it were, in the world, bereft of his dearest 
friends, he laid aside every thing unbecoming his years and 
situation. In the poem entitled the Bard's Last Song, he 
describes the altered state of his feelings : — 

Ivor is gone— my friend and guide 
• And Nest — my patroness, his bride ! 

Morvyth, my soul's delight, is fled — 
. All moulder in the clay-cold bed ! 

And I, oppress' d with woe remain, 

Victim to age and ling'ring pain. 

" Davyth ab Gwilym continued true to his muse even in 
his last moments. One of his poems — perhaps the only one, 
written on this impressive occasion,'' says his last biog- 
rapher, remains. It is entitled the 'death-bed of the bard,' 
and may perhaps be regarded more justly as his Last Song 
than the poem of that designation last quoted ; — it is full of 
remorse and penitence for his past life, &c. To differ with 
so judicious an editor as Mr. Arthur Johnes maybe deemed 
presumption ; but it is the recorded opinion of several 
literary Welshmen that the so called Last Poem, was in 
reality his last ; and that the poem of penitence above 
referred "to, whatever its general merits, is sadly deficient 
in one point of excellence — that of authenticity. In fact it 
is considered as nothing more or less than a fabrication by 
one of the Holy Brotherhood — who failing to convert him 
before death, evinced his cleverness by making him write 
his recantation in purgatory ; — at least, after his decease. 

We have now arrived at the close our bard's carreer ; and 
we may say of him, as of the Swan, that he terminated his 
life with a song. But, unlike that of the Swan, his tuneful 
talent was not forgotten at the hour of dissolution. On the 
contrary 

servatur ad imum, 

Qualis ab inccepto processerat et sibi constat. 



MORVYTH OF MONA. 561 

His death, as before stated, is said to have occurred about 
the year 1400, at his home, Bro Gynin, in the parish of 
Llanbadarn, Cardiganshire. His remains repose at Ustrad 
Fleer,* or Strata Florida, in his native county, the burial 
place of the princes of South Wales ; and his tomb has not 
wanted the congenial tribute of the muse. Some kindred 
spirit has recorded on it his friendship for the poet, and his 
regret for his loss, in an epitaph, of which the following 
translation will give some idea.f 

Gwilym, bless'd with song divine, 
Spleepest thou then, beneath this tree; 
' Neath this yew, whose foliage fine 
Shades alike thy song and thee ? 
Mantling yew-tree, he lies near 
Gwilym, Teivy's nightingale, 
And his song too slumbers here, 
Tuneless ever through the vale ! 

But the commemoration of his fame has not been con- 
fined to an anonymous herald. Three of our poet's most 
illustrious bardic contemporaries have left elegies on his 
death which bespeak at once the high estimation in which the 
writers regarded his talents, and the respect they enter- 
tained for his private worth. J The spirit of rivalry which 
may naturally be imagined to have existed during the life of 
the bard, was at once extinguished by his death, or mani- 
fested itself only in the generous trophies heaped upon his 
tomb." 

* In Welsh written Tstrad Flur, but pronounced as above. 

t The following is the original Welsh epitaph : — 
Davydd, gwiw awenydd gwrdd 
Ai yma'th roed dan goed gwyrdd ? 
Dan laspan hoyw ywen hardd) 
Lle'i claddwyd, y cuddiwyd cerdd. 
Glas dew ywen, glan eos — Deivi, 

Mae Davydd yn agos ! 
Yn y pridd mae'r gerdd ddiddos ; 
Diddawn in bob dydd a nos ! 

t The poets here alluded to where Iolo Goeh, the famous bard of Owaio 
Gljadwr, Madoc Benvras, and Griffith Grug. 



]•/ "\ 



NEST, " 

DAUGHTER OF GRIFFITH AB LLEWELYN", KING OF ALL WALES, 
AND QUEEN OF TRAHAERN AB CARADOC, KING OF NORTH 
WALES. 

It is frequently less the merit, than the atrocity or misfor- 
tune of individuals, which mark them out as subjects for his- 
torical animadversion. In the latter cases, however painful 
to describe, where the details are degrading to national 
pride, the integrity of history, and the deductions of phi- 
losophy alike demand a faithful record. 

Nest, the lady of this memoir, was the daughter of Griffith 
ab Llewelyn, sovereign prince of Wales, and grand-daughter 
of that most excellent prince Llewelyn ab Seisyllt, who 
with his wife the princess Angharad was so renowned for 
the peace and prosperity of the country during his brilliant 
reign. The contemporaries of her father's reign were Mac- 
beth king of Scotland ; and Edward the Confessor, and 
afterwards Harold, kings of England. She was the elder 
of two brothers of the names of Meredith and Ithel ; born 
about the year 1032, at her father's royal residence of 
Rhyddlan castle, North Wales; which celebrated edifice 
was built by her renowned grandfather prince Llewelyn ab 
Seisyllt. 

Losing her mother during her early girlhood, brought up 
and educated under the care of her warlike father, who, how- 
ever affectionate, was by no means an example of moral cor- 
rectness to his young family; she appears to have been too 
slightly grounded in those principles fitted to ward her against 
the perils incidental to her sex in their wordly intercourse. 
Her father's court was a general scene of hilarious festivity, 
contrasted at times with the darkest gloom of sorrow, for 
the loss of near and most dear relatives, who perished during 
warfare with the English. The refugees from Scotland, 
Ireland, and England, who sought the protection and hos- 
pitality of her father's castle, never sued in vain, and the 
dawning beauties of the youthful princess Nest could not 



NEST, QUEEN OF 563 

fail to inspire the flattering encomiums of these princely 
*> visitors. 

In the year 1038, when the subject of our memoir was, 
but six years of age, in opposing the pretensions of Howei 
ab Edwyn, who aimed to recover his right, the sovereignty 
of South Wales, her father routed his forces, and took his 
wife prisoner. To mark the laxity of morals, perhaps 
peculiar to the times, but particularly proving her father a 
wretched guide for the conduct of his daughter, it will be 
sufficient to say, that instead of restoring her to her husband 
according to the ennobling dictates humanity and heroic 
generosity, Griffith ab Llewelyn was guilty of the selfish 
meanness and demoralizing atrocity of retaining the helpless 
beauty as his concubine. In her husband's second attempt 
to recover his captive wife, and usurped dominions, he was 
slain in battle ; and Griffith still continued the unhappy 
lady in the degrading position of his mistress, probably 
till her death. With such an example before her in the 
conduct of a parent, we cannot wonder if the purity of her 
mind received its earliest tinge of discolourment from such 
reckless enormities. 

Although, personally considered, a memoir of the princess 
Nest may have but little in it either of interest or instruc- 
tion for posterity, yet an incident that happened in her 
early life, probably about the year^050^)the ei ghteenth of 
herage, which although of little import to the world at large, 
strange to say, became an affair of history to after ages. 
This dark part of her story is soon told ; and we shall 
transcribe it as related in the pages of history. 

"Macbeth, the tyrant of Scotland, having caused Banquo, 
Thane ofHLochaber of whose integrity and influence he was, 
jealous to be murdered ; his son Fleance, to avoid the tyr- 
anny of that usurper, fled intoJ^ orth Wales ; where he was 
kindly received by prince Griffith ab Llewelyn ; in whose 
court he was long entertained, with the warmest affection. 
During his residence in the Welsh court, he became ena- 
moured of Nest, the daughter of that prince ; and violating 
the laws of hospitality and honor, by an illicit connection 
with her, she was delivered of a son who was named Wal- 
— — 2 z 



564 TRAHAERN AB CARADOC. 

ter. In resentment of so foul an offence, Griffith com- 
manded Fleance to be put tojdeath ; and reduced his daugh- 
ter to the lowest servile situation, for suffering herself to be 
dishonored by a foreigner. As the youth who was the fruit 
of thi3 illicit connection, advanced in years, he became dis- 
tinguished for his valour and an elevated mind. A dispute 
having arisen between him and one of his companions, the 
nature of his birth was retorted upon him by his angry 
antagonist in terms of reproach ; which so irritated the 
fiery spirit of Walter, that he instantly killed him; and 
afraid of abiding the consequences of the murder, he fled 
into Scotland. On his arrival in that kingdom, he insin- 
uated himself among the English, who were in the train of 
queen Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling. He soon 
acquired, by his wisdom and conduct in this country, the 
general esteem ; and his abilities unfolding as they were 
employed in the public service, he was appointed lord 
steward of Scotland, and receiver of the revenues of the 
kingdom. From tjiis office he and his descendants have 
taken the name of Jstuart ;* and from this root have sprung 
the royal house of that name, and many other branches of 
illustrious families in Scotland.*'! 

The royal houses of Tudor and Stuart being partly 
of Welsh origin, it has become our province to show in 
what manner they were ultimately united. The details of 
the first will be found in this work in the Life of Catherine 
of France ; and the latter in the present memoir. De- 
laying awhile our concluding notices of the subject of this 

* We are not informed when the ensiling: of that name was changed from 
Steward into Stuart ; hut the only motive conjecturablefor it, must have been 
to conceal the origin of the first, by no means flattering to royay>ride. 

t It is really pitiable— more than pitiable— it is truly laughable, to witness 

the pride of Scotch nationality, wincing under the infliction of this historic 
f ac t ;— the origin of their royal race of Stuart traced to a criminal amour, 
based on illegitimacy ! We should have expected better of Sir Walter Scott 
than to find him inxolved in their prejudices, where he attempts to cast a slu v 
on this affair, by the remark " but this seems a very doubtful tradition"-^.- 
which occurs in his Tales of a Grandfather. The Scotch historian Buchanan, 
as well as the Welsh chronicles, and the History of Wales by Caradoc of 
Llancarvon, avouch this occurrence, as well authenticated history, and by 
mear.s icsting on the uncertainty of tradition. 



tfEST, QUEEN Ofl 565 

biographical sketch, we shall follow up the links in the 
chain of their destinies, which scccessively brought the pos- 
terity of Fleance the son of Banquo and the Welsh princess 
Nestj to the thrones of Scotland and of EnglandL This 
subject derives additional interest from the fact, that the 
female line, proceeding from the united royal houses of 
Tudor and Stuart, ultimately conjoined to the German 
House of Brunswick, who have possession of the English 
crown at the present hour, in the person of our excellent 
queen Vj^oria. 

During the national battles between the great conqueror 
Edward I. of England and the heroic Robert Bruce, the 
greatest of the kings of Scotland, Walter Stuart, t jie sixth 
representative of that family from the son of Fleauce and 
princess Nest — still bearing the hereditary office of lord 
s teward of Scotlan d, whence the name was derived, — was 
in being. From the liberal rewards so unsparingly showered 
on his favored head, it is evident lie was a highly meri- 
torious character, and deeply in the confidence of his 
sovereign. His gallant bearing in general, and especially 
his heroic bravery in the decisive battle of Bannockburn, 
won the admiration and regards of his victorious king to 
such a degree, that nothing less than the hand of his daugh- 
ter in marriage was deemed a sufficient reward. Accord- 
ingly Walter was married to Marjory the only daughter 
of king Robert Bruce. Walter* however died young and 
much regretted throughout Scotland ; and by his early 
death probably missed the honors of royalty, and becoming 
a king himself, previous to the succession of Robert his 
only son. On the death of the great Robert Brucjft, his son 
succeeded to the Scottish throne by the title of David II. ; 
but as he died childless, the malejjjas of that revered dyn- 
nasty became extinct . But the attachment of the Scottish 
nation naturally turned to the family of that popular prince ; 
and they resolved to confer the crown on a grandson of his, 
the issue of Walter Stuart and his daughter Marjory, before- 
mentioned. Accordingly he was raised to the throne by 

* Prom Walter Steward to James I. of England and VI. of Scotland, there 
were nine soverings of that race, 



■■■--■•■ 



566 TRAHAERN Afe CARABOC. 

the name of king Robert II. ; the first golden link in the 
royal chain of ancestry of the Stuarts, wnosolong ruled 
Scotland, and afterwards became kings of England. 

Queen Elizabeth of England, the last of the Tudors, 
dying childless, that dynasty became extinct ; but Mar^ 
garet the daughter of her grandfather Henry VII., having 
married into the royal family of the Stuarts of Scotland,* 
gave claim to James VI., of that country to succeed Eliza- 
abeth, as king of England and Scotland, thence called Great 
Britain, by the title of James I. When queen Anne, the 
last of the Stuart race died childless, the succession reverted 
to The Hanoverian family of the House of Brunswick, in the 
person of George I., who was in the f emale li p e descended 
from a daughter of king James I. Thus the succession 
regularly follows to our present queen Victoria. 

Returning again to the princess Nest the subject of thfs 
memoir ; it is not upon record whether her father ever 
took her again into favor. It is certain that the latter days 
of Griffith ab Llewelyn were deeply embittered by the- 
success of the English arms over his forces, the decline of 
his popularity, and the general disaffection of his subjects; 
for which there appears to have been no just reason. Their 
treasonable disloyalty to that heroic prince was amply 
punished by the tribute imposed on them by Harold, son 
of earl Godwin, general of Edward the Confessor, afterwards 
king of England; and the last of the Saxon sovereigns. 
" As the first fruits of their vassalage, this improvident and 
ungrateful people, sent the head of their murdered sovereign 
to the English general, together with the prow of the ship 
in which he had recently returned from Ireland. His foul 
murder is said to have been perpetrated at the instigation 

* Margaret Tudor eldest daughter of Henry VII., was married to James IV. 
of Scotland, and was the grandmother of Marj- Queen of Scots, and great 
grandmother of James 1. of England and Sixth of Scotland. The following 
remark appears appears in a geographical work of the time of James I. 
" litre can I not omit the prudent foresight of Henry VII., who having two 
daughters to marry, bestowed the elder on the king of Scotland, and the 
younger on the king of France : that if his owne issue made should faile and a 
prince of another nation must inherite England ; then Scotland, as the lesser 
kingdome, should follow and depend upon England ; and not England watte 
on France, as on the greater." 



NEST, QUEEN OF 567 

of Harold ; who is supposed to have found his ready tools in 
Bleddyn and Rhiwallon the sons of Cynvyn by the princess 
Angharad, mother of Griffith ab Llewelyn — his half bro- 
thers ! doubtless the patriotic portion of the Welsh, saw in 
the death of Harold which took place a few years after, in 
his encounter with William the Conqueror at the decisive 
battle of Hastings, a just retribution for his unsoldierly 
disengeniousness towards his heroic foe, the gallant Griffith 
ab Llewelyn. 

On the murder of this prince, the thrones of North 
Wales and Powys were seized by Bleddyn and PJriwallon 
his murderers ; with the aid and patronage of the English 
king, as a reward for their late infamous exploit. Thus, 
dispossessed of their home, the fair castle of Rhuddlan, the 
princess Nest and her three brothers, Meredith, Llywarch, 
and Ithel, had to fly for their lives; in the year 1066. 
Two years after we find the brothers in arms for the re- 
covery of their lost dominions. " The three young princes, 
in support of their indubitable rights raised an army and 
fought a severe battle with the reigning princes at Mechain, 
in the county of Montgomery. In this action one of the 
rival princes on each side, Rhiwallon and Tthel, was slain ; 
and Meredith, after seeing his army defeated, was forced to 
fly for safety, amidst the inmost recesses of the mountains, 
his brother Llywarch having escaped. The openings into 
these mountains being strictly guarded by Bleddyn, rendered 
his escape impossible, and the young prince miserably per- 
ished by cold and hunger."* 

After the melancholy deaths of her two brothers, Nest 
found herself nearly alone in the world; her entire family 
having perished with the exception of her brother Llywarch, 
in the ceaseless struggles of these terrific times. But for- 
tune, that had shunned her so long, seemed to have reserved 
a few smiles to gild the edges of those dark clouds by which 
she had so long been enveloped. At the death of her 
Mothers iai^Biii^^^^^yi^x^eje^ years of age ; 
and still, probably, very attractive in person. She was 
also, by that melancholy event, now the heir presumptive to 

* Warrington. 
2 z 2 



568 TBAHAERN AB CARADOC. 

thethrone of North Wales, if not to the entire principality. 
Consequently the heiress-hunters of the day doubtless 
thought her a very desirable match ; and ultimately she 
gave her hand in marriage to that eminent chieftain Tra- 
haern ab Caradoc. By the right derived from this union, 
seconded by his own daring valour and the consent of the 
people, on the murder of his cousin Cleddyn ab Cynvyn in 
the year 1073, Trahaern ab Caradoc mounted the throne of 
North Wales. Thus Nest became the royal mistress of 
the halls of Rhuddlan, the beloved scenes of her early youth 
and witnesses of her after sorrows. But her happiness, 
alas ! was not of long duration. In the year 1079, after 
ruling the country with wisdom and valour for six years, 
Trahaern was opposed by the joint armies of Griffith ab 
Cynan, who claimed the crown of North Wales in right of 
his late father, and of his ally Rhys ab Tewdwr, prince of 
South Wales. " To oppose a union so dangerous to his 
safety, Trahaern ab Caradoc assembled his forces, and met 
the two princes upon the mountain of Carno* in Mon- 
mouthshire. Here an engagement ensued, disputed with 
the valour and obstinacy natural to rivals who had every 
thing to hope and fear. In this action Trahaern ab Caradoc 
was slain and his army defeated. 

At the period of this disastrous event Nest was in the 
forty- seventh year of her age. What became of her after 
second expulsion from the royal palace of Rhyddlau, in con- 
sequence of the violent deaths of her father and husband, is 
not known ; nor does there appear to be any tradition by 
which her after-life or death have been handed down to 
posterity. 

* In Welsh called Mynydd Cam, (Mountain of the Cam), on account cf a 
large Carnedd on it, raised to the memory of an ancient warrior. The erection 
of this memorial must have been in very remote times, as the mountain bore 
the same name when a battle was fought on it in the year 728 between a 
Welsh army under prince Roderic Moelwynoc, and a Saxon army under Ethel- 
bald king cf Mercia, when neither party could claim a victory. The scene of 
these battles is supposed to be between Tredegar and Dowlais, about the spot 
where the Rhymney and Bute Iron Works are erected. My late friend the 
Rev. John Jones vicar, Nevern, (loan Tegid) disputed this, and vehemently 
insisted that the battle was fought on a mouutain of the same name in North 
Wales. As he was a native of that country it is feared that local partiality 
biassed the worthy and learned bard and antiquary in this decision. 



NEST, QUEEN OF TRAHAERN AB CARADOC. 569 

By his marriage with Nest, Trahacrn ab Caradoc had two 
children; a daughter named Nest who was afterwards married 
to Bernard de New-march ; and a son named Llywarch, 
who became much distinguished as lord of Pembroke. On 
the death of Henry I. and the accession of Stephen in 1 138, 
he had the merit of giving the first impulse to the revolt, in 
which the whole country soon united, and drove the English 
from nearly all their conquests in Wales, as related in the 
memoirs of Aogharad and Gwenllian. Llywarch ab Tra- 
haern had also the honor of becoming the father in law of 
the great prince Owen Gwyneth, by the marriage of his 
daughter Gwladys with that sovereign. 

But after naming these favorable circumstances in the 
life of Llywarch ab Trahaern, the brother of Nest, Historie 
fidelity demands that his vices also should meet their due 
comment, as they are too flagrant to be omitted, or lightly 
passed over. When Henry I. failed to put down by the 
force of arms the just pretensions of Griffith ab Rhys to the 
sovereignty of South Wales, he employed certain degenerate 
Welsh chief tains who engaged to destroy the hero by assassi- 
nation. These were Owen ab Cadwgan, Madoc ab Ririd, 
and this Llywarch ab Trahaern — who form a triad of the 
most atrocious scoundrels that ever darkened the pages of 
Welsh History. Llywarch also, in conjunction with his 
mother, took an active part in separating his sister Nest 
from her first husband, whom he sought to murder,- and 
compelled to become a fugitive and an exile, in order to 
bring about her union with Bernard de Newmarch, the 
conqueror of the district of Brecknock ; to whom he pre- 
sented her as a virgin, as fully related in the next memoir. 



THE PRINCESS NEST, 

DAUGHTER OF TRAHAERN AB CARADOG, KING OF NORTH 
WALES, AND OF NEST, DAUGHTER OF GRIFFITH AB LLEW- 
ELYN AB SEISTLLT; AND WIFE OF BERNARD DE NEW- 
MARCH LORD OF BRECON. 

Previous to our attempt at clearing this lady from a por- 
tion at least, of the iniquities with which her memory is 
loaded, we mast state the charges with which history, and 
pseudo-history, have overwhelmed her. 

Remarking on the conquest of Brecknockshire by Ber- 
nard de Newmarch, Theophilus Jones says — " to strengthen 
and add stability to his interest among the Welsh, Bernard 
married Nest, grandaughter of Griffith ab Llewelyn, prince 
of North Wales, a lady who does no credit to our country 
or his choice, further than it contributed to give perma- 
nency to his title, and reconciled his issue to his new 
subjects." In a note to the same he adds, " this princess 
was a woman of very loose principles, and notoriously mere- 
tricious before her marriage; for by Fleance the son of 
Banquo, king of Scotland, who fled to Wales to avoid pun- 
ishment for a murder, she had Walter Stuart, or Walter the 
steward, ancestor of the Stuarts, kings of Scotland, and 
afterwards of England. The honor of having killed his man 
was perhaps a recommendation to the lady at that time, as 
it is said to be since, in nations supposed to be more civi- 
lized." 

The only correct point in the above passage is, that 
Bernard de Newmarch actually did marry the lady in 
question, otherwise the entire statement forms a singular 
tissue of errors. This is the more surprising, as its author 
is generally patient and laborious in his investigations; 
and has detected and set right many of the historical mis- 
takes of others. In the first place, the reader who has 
perused our last memoir, that of Nest the daughter of 
Griffith ab Llewelyn, and wife of Trahaern ab Caradoc, 
has by this time discovered that Theophilus Jones has 



NEST, WIFE OF 571 

visited upon the daughter, our present princess Nest, the 
sins of her mother, a proceeding the more merciless, as she 
unfortunately had more of her own to answer for, than can 
readily be excused or pardoned. Secondly, Banquo was 
never a king of Scotland ; but at the time of his death held 
only the rank of Thane of Lochaber. Thirdly, Fleance the 
son of Banquo did not fly to Wales " to avoid punishment 
for a murder which he had committed ;" but for security 
from the tyranny of the usurper Macbeth, who had caused 
his father to be assassinated, and who sought to destroy the 
son, in consequence of the prediction of the Weird sisters, 
" that the race of Banquo should become kings, although 
he should be none himself." Lastly, the lady of our memoir 
stands cleared of the bad taste imputed to her, of having 
admired the Scotch Refugee for having " killed his man ;" 
as, in fact, he killed no one, but was himself put to death 
for his seduction of the unhappy daughter of his hospitable 
host and benefactor. But as the entire narrative of these 
transactions has been given in the preceding memoir, the 
repetition here is unnecessary.* 

* The innumerable mistakes chargeable against Theophilus Jones in his 
" History of the Town and County of Brecknock," are thus commented upon 
by Edward Williams, better known by his bardic cognomen of Iolo Morganwg , 
He is writing of the sources of information from which Mr. T. Rees, might 
collect his materials for a work on South Wales:" Mr. Eees had for Brecon- 
Bhire the whole collected mass of Theophilus Jones, such as it is — I say such 
as it is, for such a crude jumble of ignorance and negligence never heretofore 
appeared in the literary world. Take an instance or two from amongst a 
number not less than two thousand — I reconsider what I have said and con- 
fidently repeat two thousand." The bitter bard then states the two errors, 
both certainly very startling and inexcuseable on th e part of the public. In 
defence of the unfortunate historian of Breconshire the Rev. Thomas Price 
(Carnuhanawe) who when a young man ass'sted him in his ponderous under- 
taking by drawing, painting, and engraving the armorial bearings, assured me 
«' that Theophilus Jones, while preparing the work for the press was so griev- 
vously afflicted with the gout that his left hand had to support the wrist of bis 
flannel bound right, as he guided the pen, with the tips only of his fingers at 
liberty, while severe twinges of pain every now and then arrested his progress; 
and under those circumstances, he said, he could not wonder had the mistakes 
been still more numerous." Candour, however, calls for the admission, that 
notwithstanding the errors both in taste and mis-statements abounding in that 
work, that the history of Breconshire contains much yaliffl l fle information . 
brought together from -innumerable and far-spreading sources, too difficult of 
access for the researches of the modern antiquary or historian, 






572 BERNARD DE NEWMARCtf. 

It is evident that this historian's principal mistake pro- 
ceeded from the mother and daughter being of the same 
name ; but it is somewhat remarkable, that in the table of 
pedigrees in the history of Brecknockshire, that error is not 
traceable, but the mother and daughter are distinctly placed 
in their proper order* 

Although a pretty load of imputed iniquities have already 
been removed from this lady's shoulders, we fear not but 
our versions of the story will not only clear her fame from all 
reproach, but additionally prove that Nest alone is the in- 
jured party. Wynne ; in his history of Wales states the 
matter as follows. 

" Bernard de Newmarch gave the people of Wales some 
small satisfaction and content by marrying Nest, the 
daughter also of Nest, daughter of Llewelyn ab Griffith,* 
prince of Wales, by whom he had issue, a son named Ma- 
hael. This worthy gentleman being legally to succeed his 
father in the lordship of Brecknock, was afterwards disin- 
herited by the malice and baseness of his own unnatural 
mother. The occasion was thus ; — Nest happening to fall 
in admiration of a certain knight, with whom she had more 
than ordinary familiarity, even beyond what she expressed 
to her own husband ; Mahael perceiving her dissolute and 
loose behaviour, counselled her to take care of her fame and 
reputation, and to leave off that scandalous liberty which 
she took ; and afterwards casually meeting her gallant 
coming from her, fought, and grievously wounded him. 
Upon this, Nest to be revenged upon her son, went to 
Henry I. of England, and in his presence took her cor- 
poral oath that her son Mahael was illegitimate, and not 
begot by Bernard de Newmarch her husband, but by ano- 
ther person. By virtue of this oath, or rather perjury, 
Mahael was disinherited, and his sister, whom her mother 
attested to be legitimate, was bestowed upon Milo, the son 
of Walter Constable, afterwards earl of Hereford, who in 
right of his wife enjoyed the whole estate of Bernard de 
Newmarch lord of Brecon." 

* Instead of Llewelyn ab Griffith, he should have written Griffith ab 
Llewelyn. 



NEST, WIFE OF 573 

The reader should bear in mind that the fore-written 
version of the story has been considered in past times as 
only the fabrication of a party, consisting of the enemies of 
Nest, and the biassed partizans of the Norman conqueror who 
had contracted with her a political marriage under most 
unwarrantable circumstances. There is a traditional story 
opposed to it, in the Cambrian interest, which if true, (and 
it is as likely to be so as tEe*otHer, which has the advantage 
merely of being a written instead of an oral tradition) that 
will place the entire affair in a very different light ; and the 
guilt ascribed to the princess transferred to those who 
deserved it. 

In the latter version of the story, it is said that at the 
time when Bernard de Newmarch invaded Breconshire, and 
demanded the royal daughter of the late Trahaern ab Cara- 
doc for his bride, with the political view of ingratiating 
himself with the people beneath his sway as lord of Breck- 
nock, that the princess Nest was already a married woman — 
that she had been for some time the espoused wife of a 
private individual, a man of her own choice, whom her 
ambitious family thought proper to stigmatize as obscure ; 
and being unsanctioned by them, therefore they considered 
her union with him, although hallowed by the rites of the 
church, as an illicit connection, that might be dissolved in 
any manner which their pride or interest might suggest. 
When the father of Nest, the gallant Trahaern ab Caradoc 
(who had reigned with credit as sovereign of North Wales) 
was killed at the battle of Carno, by which Griffith ab Cy- 
nan was restored to the vacated throne, the family of Tra- 
haern naturally sought obscurity, as the best defence from 
the vengeance to be dreaded at the hands of the reigning 
royal family. But now that his daughter was sought in 
marriage by a fpotent Norman baron who had made a 
conquest of an important portion of South Wales, their 
dormant pride rekindled as their prospects brightened, and 
ambition once more became paramount. As they beheld 
nothing more than the unknown husband of Nest as an 
obstacle to their views, they resolved on sacrificing the 
unhappy man, and concealing the connection which had 



rvHH 



574 BERNARD DE NEWMARCH. 

existed between him and the princess, although it is inferred 
that she was herself strenuously opposed to these criminal 
arrangements. Her mother and her brother Llywarch, who 
possessed estates in the district of Pembroke, appear to 
have been the principal, if not the only parties in this dark 
affair ; and the spirit which in after time marked the cha- 
racter of Nest was utterly unknown to this early period of 
her mild existence : as it appears when harrassed almost 
to death by their vehement importunities, she suffered her- 
self, alternately oppressed by their reproaches, threats, and 
cajoling, to become a passive instrument in their hands, 
although determined, if possible, to preserve the life of her 
innocent doomed husband. Having arrived at this stage of 
their atrocities, the brief and unceremonious destruction of 
the unhappy man alone remained to be perpetrated ; and it 
was decided that the application of the assassin's dagger alone 
suited the secrecy of their pu rpose, as the most expedient 
termination of their foul enterprize. The projector of this 
horrible plan was Llywarch the brother of Nest, with the 
concurrence of their mother. The unscrupulous character 
of this monster places his capability of heinous deeds beyond 
a doubt, as perfectly equal to the task which he had under- 
taken, and one not to a be turned aside from his deadly 
purpose by any misgivings of humanity, whether of pity or 
remorse, or any other compunctious visitings of man's com- 
mon nature. In proof of this view of his character, he had 
already distinguished himself as the votary of assassination 
by engaging himself as the murderous agent of Henry I., 
associated with the equally detestable Owen ab Cadwagan,* 
to destroy the gallant prince Griffith ab Rhys, at this period 
his reigning sovereign, though possessed of only a scanty 

* These criminals, namely Llywarch ab Trahaern and Owen ab Cadwagan, 
with their occasional associate, Madoc ab Ririd, form an appropriate triad of 
the basest villains which infested these times, or blotted the page of history 
with their detestable names. Henry Beauclerc, the scholar king, the merry 
monarch of the twelfth century, and the model of Charles II. in after ages, ever 
found in these degenerate Welshmen, the readiest agents in his murderous 
schemes for the destruction of the most illustrious patriots of the Cambrian 
territory. But in summing up the character of this Anglo-Norman king, not 
one of the historians of England have dwelt upon this foul phase; but passed 
it over as unworthy of particular comment. 



NEST, WIFE OP 575 

remnant of the ancient domains of South Wales. It ap- 
pears however, that Llywarch ab Trahaern, for some unex- 
plained reason delegated the intended deed of blood to the 
hand of an agent, by which the scheme failed, through the 
tenderness of Nest, who managed to give her husband notice 
of his peril ; and he was thereby enabled to fly for his life, 
in company with his intended murderer, who stood in equal 
danger from the impending vengeance of Llewarch. How- 
ever the princess was presented to Bernard de Newmarch, 
who married her as a virgin at the period of her early 
pregnancy. The child she bore in after time was named 
Mahael, who appeared in the eyes of the world as the law- 
fully begotten son of Bernard de Newmarch. It was 
inferred by the few who were in the secret, that although 
discreetly yielding to the force of circumstances that the 
proud Norman himself was neither ignorant of the supprest 
marriage of his wife nor of her previous pregnancy, but that 
policy had sealed his lips whatever his feelings may have 
been. It appears evident from succeeding events that 
Bernard fully discharged the duties of an affectionate father 
towards the youth Mahael, whom he not only inspired with 
the dearest regard for himself, but fatally left him also to 
inherit his questionable feelings for the lady Nest, his 
mother ; towards whom he had not demonstrated any par- 
ticular marks of either affection or respect. Had another 
son been born to him, unquestionably his own, his bearing 
towards Mahael might have been otherwise, but leaving 
no other offspring than a daughter named Mabil, he left 
Mahael to be regarded as his son, heir and successor. 

The tradition goes, that on the death of this politic con- 
queror of Breconshire, the said Mahael was always on ill terms 
with his mother, who had frequent occasions for remonstra- 
ting with him for his proud and insolent assumption of autho- 
rity, arrogating to himself, though some years under twenty, 
the full right and competence of exercising all the authority 
and official functions of his late father, as lord of Brecknock, 
independently of any deferential reference to the opinions of 
his widowed mother, over whom, in the course of time he 
discovered an inclination to domineer. Nest had by this 

3 A 



576 BERNARD DE NEWMARCH. 

time lost all the milder attributes of her early life. The 
severe trials which she had experienced in hr ecommerce 
with a world that had used her harshly, now banished the 
pliancy and yielding gentleness which nature had impressed 
upon her heart, and in their place had left the somewhat 
hardened but half-cicatrized scars of olden wounds, so irri- 
table that the slightest touch of provocation failed not to 
inflame her to frequent demonstrations of fiery resentment. 
Now in the vigor of middle life, after congratulating herself 
on her emancipation from the constraints imposed upon her 
condition by an arbitrary harsh lord ; after perhaps indul- 
ging herself in anticipations of governing — in ruling her son 
and the district beneath his sway with the full power which 
her maternal character gave her over his youth, we may 
conceive she was ill prepared to have her views thwarted 
and her will opposed : that she could ill brook those 
haughty indications in her son, which gave her to suspect 
that she had only changed one tyrant for another, and the 
latter, however much despised, more intolerable than the 
first, for the want of due warranty for his assumptions; 
Among other points of personal disrespect towards her, she 
noticed, with corresponding feelings of indignation that the 
insolent boy made invidious distinctions between the Anglo- 
Normans and the Welsh, favoring the former and discoun- 
tenacing the latter, as his mother's country people. This 
of course called for expostulation on her part, accompanied 
with emphatic remarks on the impolicy as well as the 
injustice of such proceedings, which she asserted that his 
father, in the height of his power, dared not have ventured 
upon. It is even stated that she was in several cases of 
foolish outrage on his part, obliged to protect many who had 
suffered from his active tyranny and oppression. These 
offences and interferences often led to unseemly alterations, 
very discreditable to the inmates of the castle. It was said 
that Mahael, in his assumption of independence and oppo- 
sition to his mother, so far forgot his position and the 
habits of common politeness as either to deny his presence 
to her guests, or to conduct himself with ungraciousness 
and even moroseness towards them ; thus every thing within 



NEST, WIFE OF 577 

the castle of Brecknock bore the inauspicious aspect of a 
divided house; and the presence of the principal of the 
neighbouring priory was often called to interfere and re- 
store peace between the enraged parties. As his insolence 
and impatience of matronly controul increased with his years, 
a spirit of resentful sternness became habitual to his mother, 
and their best friends despaired of establishing concord be- 
tween them. At length a deplorable outbreak occurred 
which brought the dreadful catastrophe about to be related. 

Among the most frequent visitors of the lady Nest was a 
gentleman of a noble and martial bearing, and at the same 
time of very amiable and unobtrusive manners, whom she 
appeared to distinguish by an especial degree of favor, and 
in whose company she spent many hours daily, in her favo- 
rite southern tower that faced the sublime heights of the 
Beacon mountain, the loftiest elevation in Southern Cambria. 

Towards Mahael this gentleman always conducted him- 
self with especial courtesy, and appeared to entertain a 
benevolent desire of cultivating a friendly intercourse with 
him. But the very circumstance of his social footing with 
his mother became a motive to the perverse mind of the 
young man for repelling his advances, and treating the con- 
ciliating stranger with the most repulsive reserve and 
hauteur. It appeared to be a settled maxim with him that 
his mother's friends must necessarily be his foes ; and that 
whatever appearance of kindness they bore, that it was but an 
insidious mask to conceal their real hostility. He even went 
further than presenting an ungracious demeanour; his active 
malice in annoying his mother became conspicuous in the 
following manner. On one occasion when his mother desired 
his presence among her friends, he sneeringly observed 
that his appearance would scarcely be desirable when she was 
already blest with the company of her favorite, the " un- 
known knight.'' This taunt carried the insinuation that 
her intercourse with this person was somewhat questionable, 
and beyond the strict rules of propriety established by the 
etiquette of the times. The resentment of the lady Nest 
on the reception of such stinging inuendoes was fiery and 
overwhelming, and the expressions of her anger awfully 



^ 



578 BERNARD DE NEWMABCH. 

thrilling. It was said that in the paroxisms of her rage she 
threw out certain threats both of alarming and mysterious 
import, that for the time, had the effect of subduing the au- 
dacity of Mahael. In the fervor of her indignation she 
asserted that she had the power of dashing down forever all 
his knightly aspirations; that a word of hers could render 
him the most contemptible of mankind ; and that assuredly 
the annihilating word should be thundered forth, if he 
dared to proceed in his present course of insult to herself, 
and more especially to her long lost and newly recovered 
friend — whom he, of all men, if he knew all, was bound 
most to honor and respect. Suddenly recollecting herself, 
on witnessing tne awe and terror which her passion had 
created, she would quietly add, that the gentleman in 
question was no less the friend and guest of the venerable 
Prior than her own; which would indubitably serve to 
establish the respectability of his character ; but that the 
particulars of his history, blended as they were with the 
incidents of her early life, were not for present revelation. 

The personage here referred to was " the certain knight" 
whom Nest is said to have "fallen in admiration of" in the 
former version of this narrative. The tradition runs that 
this mysterious character was no other than the lady Nest's 
first husband, from whom she had been so infamously sepa- 
rated, through the political machinations of her mother, 
and her brother Lly warch ab Trahaern, to become the wife 
of Bernard de Newmarch, That having escaped the daggers 
of the assassins employed to despatch him, he passed an hono- 
rable and adventurous life abroad, where he had acquired 
military rank and fortune. Hearing of the decease of Ber- 
nard de Newmarch, he visited his native land in disguise, 
had the satisfaction to find the bride of his youth not only 
alive but favorably disposed towards him. In short it was 
settled between this long-sundered and ill-used pair, that 
as Mahael was on the point of attaining his majority, when 
his marriage and knighthood, at the hand of the king would 
follow ; at which season they would embrace the opportunity 
of being privately re-united, by a repetition of their mar- 
riage ceremony. After which they would quit this country 



NEST, WIFE OF 579 

forever and settle among his friends and new connections 
abroad. This innocent and honorable arrangement became 
utterly destroyed, just as it was about to be carried into 
effect through the misconstructions and outrageous con- 
duct of Mahael. """""^N 

Having watched the steps of him whom in his ignorance J 
and malignity he had scornfully called the unknown knight, ^*\ 
he one day intercepted him as he was coming from his 
mother ; after much insolent abuse to provoke him to violence 
he drew his sword on him, and in his own defence induced ^\ 
him to do the same. But while Mahael made the most 
deadly thrusts at him he merely Sfcood on his own protec- iL 
ion without the least attempt of profiting by his inexpe- 
rience to injure him, well knowing the perverse youth to 
be the child of his own loins, though thus mysteriously 
placed before him as his deadliest enemy. Notwithstanding 
his forbearance Mahael took advantage of a chance heed- 
lessly given him, and not merely "grievously wounded 
him," as mis-stated in the former version of this trans- 
action, but in a furious pass inflicting on him the fatal 
wound of which he immediately died ; thus literally killing ,- 
his real father, though unknown to him, and becoming that 
most wretched of criminals ajpjjadcide*. 

This unpardonable provocation explains the after conduct 
of his mother, and clears her asperseaTlame, where*' loose 
behaviour" and the crime of "perjury" has been imputed to 
her; it also reconciles to our understanding the double 
version of her sad story. Rendered desperate, and inspired 
with hatred against her unworthy son, who had latterly 
embittered her days, and now crowned his infamy by the 
murder of the beloved husband of her youth, whom as she 
thought, she had just recovered, and fondly anticipated a 
happy closing of her days with him in a foreign land — thus 
deprived of every solace to render her existence endurable, 
we are the less astonished at the nature of her revenge. 

When king Henry appeared amidst his court at Wor- 
cester, which had attended him there, where among other 
matters of state he was to receive the homage of his vassals 
of the principality of Wales, the lady Nest, in her widow's 

3 A 3 *vW 






5S0 BERNARD DE NEWMARCH. 

* 

weeds came before him ; and to the astonishment of the 
sovereign and the courtly circle, asseverated upon oath, as 
before stated, that her son Mahael was not entitled to the 
honor of knighthood ; that he was illegitimate and not begot 
by Bernard de Newmarch, her husband, but by another. 
The reason of her apparent forbearance in not stigma- 
tizing him also as a* murderer and parricide, which might 
• go far towards perilling his life, is less attributable to her 
y mercy than to the intention of preserving for her daughter 
the forfeited inheritance of her son. As the matter stood 
she appeared there a self- convicted adultress : but had she 
revealed the secret of ner first marriage although it would 
have cleared her personal fame, it would have invalidated 
the last union and thereby have bastardized her daughter 
also. Rather than involve her affectionate child in the 
general family ruin, with the self-abandonment of a devoted 
martyr she submitted to the foul construction which the 
world would put upon her conduct, and additionally swore 
that her daughter Mabil was the lawfully begotten child of 
the said Bernard. Her oaths, in all their integrity, were 
accepted and recorded ; in consequence of which Mahael 
was disinherited, and his alienated rights transferred to his 
sister, who was soon after united in marriage with the young 
baron, Milo Fitzwalter; an espousal that enriched the 
latter with the landed possessions of his deprived brother- 
in-law ; in addition to which earthly glories, in brief space 
later, the king created him earl of Hereford. The period 
of Nest's death is not upon record nor is any thing known 
of the after life or death of her son Mahael. 



\ 



" 



ANNE THOMAS, 

OP CKEYTHIF,* WIFE OF SHON+ HUMPHKIES, OF LLANVAIE 

VECHAN4 

Although a modest member of the rustic train , in the 
humbler class of farming j ife, a very romantic and perilous 
a c cj fl ent which happened to Anne Thomas, in her maiden- 
hood, about the year 1680, caused toth her and the person' 
who afterwards becamener husband, to be considered as 
subjects of very general curiosity. The even tenor of many 
a long life is frequently void of a single incident to entitle 
its subject to public notice ; but in the present instance, the 
events to be recorded of a pair of the unobstrusive children 
of obscurity, may justly be considered wonderful, even had 
they occurred in the adventurous career of enterprising 
wanderers over land and sea. 

Anne Thomas was a native of Creythin, a village on the 
opposite side of the river Conway to Pen-maenmawr. She 
had made an appointment to meet her young man t Shon 
Humphries, at that g eneral scene of r ural Rspignafions, a 
fair, in the town of Conway. In crossing the ferryoiri^at 
river, the boat being excessively crowded, was upset, and the-* 
whole party, consisting of above four score persons, was" 
precipitated into the stream ; and awful to relate, every one 4 
perished — except the subject of our memoir.§ 

On the same { j[ay^ her lover Shon Humphries, who was 
hastening to join her, had to pass a piece of rugged land, 
fully as perilous as the wild waters on which the dreadful 
catastrophe before-mentioned had occurred — namely the 

* In Welsh spelt Creyddyn. 
^ t In Welsh Shon is 'Spelt Sion. 

t Llanvair Vechan signifies Mary's Church the lesser. 
I Observing on this pair of accidents, Pennant says, I would not venture to 
mention it, had I not the strongest traditional authority, to this day in the 
mouths of every one in the parish of ijUavlUr Yechan, in which the promon- 
tory stands. 



582 ANNE THOMAS. 

tremendous road over the promontory of Penmaenmawr. It 
may be imagined his mind was far from tranquil, notwith- 
standing the tender nature of his anticipations ; for, al- 
though his anxiety to reach Conway in time, urged him 
briskly forward, his terrors in treading the crumbling sides 
of this fearful precipice, where, he reflected, so many 
travellers had perished, suggested the most prudential care 
in his movements. His danger increased every space he 
advanced, as the road stretched higher and higher, while 
with the most thrilling sensations, he could look down upon 
the raging sea furiously foaming beneath the intervening 
sharp pointed rocks. •Aware that a single false step might 
be his death, he moved forward with as much care as the 
urgency of his haste would permit. However, notwith- 
standing his circumspection, he ultimately lost his footing, and 
fell headlong down the terrific precipice. But honest Shon 
Humphries was no more destined to perish by such an acci- 
dent than his beloved by a watery grave ; his escape seemed 
miraculous ; but escape he did, and without broken bones, 
although with some severe contusions. He not only reached 
Conway at the time expected, but soon after married the 
maiden, who on the same day had been so miraculously 
preserved. 

This wonderful pair are further noticeable for the great 
age which each attained. Anne was buried April 11th, 
1744, aged one hundred and sixteen ; her husband survived 
her five years, and was buried December 10th, 1749, close 
by her side in the parish churchyard of Llanvair Vechan ; 
where their graves are familiarly shown to this day. 

To give the reader a just view of the road to Penmaen- 
mawr, we must be further indebted to the picturesque pages 
of Pennant, whence we gained the best part of our previous 
information. 

"I continued my journey from Aber, along the rich recess, 
enjoying a fine view of the entrance into the Monar, with its 
wooded shores of Anglesea and Priestholm Isle, and the 
great expanse of water between them and Llandudno, or 
Ormshead ; the vast cape rising, like the rock of Gibralter, 
high out of the waves. Before me soared the great promon- 



ANNE THOMAS. 583 

tory of Penmaen-mawr * protruding itself into the sea, and 
exhibiting a fine contrast to the fertility which it interrupts, 
by a rude view of grey weather-beaten stone and precipice. 
I passed by Bryn y Neuodd, and a little further is the small 
Tillage and church of Llanvair Vechan, from whence is a 
very short ride to the once tremendous road over this cele- 
brated rock. In past times it was justly the terror of the 
traveller; extremely narrow, bad, and stony; and what 
added to his fears, for a considerable way the danger in- 
creased with his progress, by reason of the precipice gaining 
additional height. Generally it was without the protection 
of a wall to secure him in case of a false step ; which might 
in the loftiest place precipitate him some scores of yards, 
either onjharp rocks, or into the sea, according to the^sjtate. 
of the tide. A vein of crumbling stratum in one part, so 
contracted the road as to excite new horrors. The descent 
towards Penmaen Bach,f which before was hardly practica- 
ble, is now destroyed ; and the road is brought on a level 
for two or three miles, at a vast height above a return of 
rich slopes, and the deep bottom of Dwygyvylchan, till we 
arrive at the rude back of the lesser promontory ; when we 
labour up the steep ascent of Sychnaut,^ with an horrible 
and almost precipitous mountain on one side and hills with 
tops broken into almost singular crags, on the other. From 
the top of Sychnant the road is continued about two miles 
on a perpetual descent to the town of Conway. The breach 
occasioned by the crumbling stratum is now effectually 
repaired by a series of arches ; a work the just admiration 
of travellers, and a high credit to the ingenious contriver.§ 

Two or three accidents, which have happened on this road, 
will remain as miracles. An exciseman fell down the highest 
part, and escaped unhurt, as did more than one attorney 

* Signifying Head of the great promontory. 

t Signifying Head of the lesser promontory. 

t Parliament employed an engineer, John Sylvester, Esq., about the year 
1772, who effectually removed these dangers, by forming a safe and commodious 
road. It is now widened to a proper breadth, and near the verge of the 'precipice 
secured by a strong wall. 

§ Dry brook. 



584 ANNE THOMAS. 

belonging to Conway ; on which we present the following 
epigram :— 

^ I'll crush man's friends, the Devil said, 
Since Penmean-mawr's my throne, 
"While mine's the pow'r that roasts and fries men, 
And save my friends — those precious wisemen ! — 
Lawyers, liars, thieves, excisemen, 
Sweet crew, they're all my own." 
The Rev. Mr. Jones, Rector of Llanelian in 1762 fell with 
his horse, and a midwife behind him, down the steepest 
part. The sage femme perished, as did the nag. The divine, 
with great philosophy, unsaddled the steed, and marched 
off with the trappings, exulting at his preservation. 



s^v 



MEVANWY VECHAN, 

OF DINAS BEAN CASTLE. 



" Mevanwy, the maid of Llangollen of old.' 



Very slight are our materials for working out a biographi- 
cal article for this lady; and were it not that she was 
fortunate enough to have had a poet for her lover, it is 
probable that neither tradition nor history would have borne 
witness of her existence. Her residence was at Dinas Bran 
castle, situate on the summit of a lofty and steep mountain, 
frowning over the fair vale of Llangollen ; one of the oldest 
fortresses in the kingdom, and long the residence of the 
lords of Ial , (yale) as it had once been of another Beauty, 
a notice of whom appears elsewhere in this work, the lady 
Emma, wife of the unpopular chieftain, Griffith ab Madocj 
Her father, descended from the house of Tudyr Trevor, was 
governor of this castle, it is supposed under the earl of 
Arundel, in the year 1390. Her poetic lover was a renowned 
bard, named Howel ab Eineon Llygliw. It is said of Mev- 
anwy Vechan, in the brief notice of her in Evan's specimens 
of the ancient Welsh bards, that "her charms inspired more 
than one child of song," although nj other than fiowel has 
been named. 

The original manuscript of the very passionate and pa- 
thetic love elegy, erroneous called an ode, addressed to her 
by her poet lover, was discovered amid the ruins of Dinas 
Bran castle ; and has been published in the archaeology of 
Wales. In this production are set forth, as usual in such 
cases, the intense sufferings of the bard, and the cruelty of 
his mistress, however, very beautifully illustrated with ap- 
propriate similies. We learn also from the poem that 
Mevanwy Vechan was very beautiful, very graceful, very 
good, and very accomplished ; and to crown all, that she 



586 MEVANWT VECHAN. 

dressed with elegance and good taste, and appeared occasion- 
ally in a robe of scarlet. Deficient as we are of materials 
for an extended biography of this celebrated beauty, we 
submit to the reader the concluding lines of the elegy of 
Howel, translated by the Rev. R. William, of Vron, near 
Mold, Flintshire. 

When first I saw thee, princely maid! 
In scarlet robes of state array 'd 
Thy beauties set my soul on fire, 
And every motion fann'd desire ; 
The more on thy sweet form I gazed 
The more my frantic passion blazed. 

Not half so fine the spider's thread 
That gutters in the dewy mead, 
As the bright ringlets of thy hair, 
Thou beauteous object of my care. 
But ah, my sighs, my tears are vain, 
The cruel maid insults my pain. 

And can'st thou, without pity, see 
The victim of thy cruelty, 
Pale with despair and robb'd of sleep, 
Whose only business is to weep?— 
Behold thy bard, thy lover languish, 
Oh ease thy bard'a, thy lover's anguish ! 

Ah fairer than the flowers adorning 
The hawthorn in a summer's morning ! 
While life remains I still will sing 
Thy praise, and make the mountains ring 
With fair Mevanwy's tuneful name ! 
And from misfortune purchase fame : 
Not e'en to die shall I repine, 
So Howell's name may live with thine. 



END OP THIS VOLUME. 



HEROINES OF WELSH HISTORY; 

OR, 

Btera nf % (feMrruttr Wmm nf Wnlw. 

PART THE SECOND. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Boadicea's Memoirs — Concluded . » .95 

Bronwen, Daughter of King Llyr . . 96 

Her brother Bran ab Llyr becomes hostage to the Romans 

on the liberation of his son Caractacus . . ib. 

Introduction of Christianity into Britain by him and his 

family . . . . . ib. 

Her marriage with Matholwch, king of Ireland . . 97 

Her affecting story . . . .98 

Discovery of her earn or sepulchre on the bank of the 

Alaw, in Anglesea . . . . ib. 

The urn containing her bones presented to the British 

Museum . . . . .99 

Reasons why the urn ought to be replaced, and her cam 

restored . . . . .100 

Brychan Brecheiniog's Female Family . . 101 

His mother's story — a singular legend . . 102 

Her marriage with an Irish prince, and birth of Brychan . 103 

Brought to Britain at two years of age. A prophesy of 

his future prosperity .... ib. 

Succeeds his father, A.D. 400, as king of Garthmadrin ; 

which name he changes to Brecheiniog . .104 

Brychan's illegitimate son Cynog . . . 105 

His early profligacy, ultimate reformation, and conversion 

to Christianity . . . . .107 

Cynog's magic bracelet, a curious legend . . 108 

Brychan's three wives and fifty children . .109 

Britain Christianized before Ireland . . .110 

The piety of his children and their support of early British 
Christianity . « . . .111 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
His twenty-six daughters, their names and destinies . 112 

His times agitated by the incursion of Barbarians and the 

Palagian heresy 
Account of Morgan, or Falagius 
The valour and mental capacities of the Britons of these 

times .... 

The Halleluiah Victory, or Battle of St. German's Field 
Catherine of Ceselgyvarch 

Her merits not to be measured by the standard of modern 

appreciation 
Terrific family feuds of these times 
Characteristic scene between Catherine and her ferocious 

brother * . 

Failure of the scheme for murdering levan ab Robert 
Murder of the parson of Llanvrothen . 
The Llawrudds, or red-hands ; murderers so called 
The prevalence of brigandism in Wales 
The perilous and successful expedition of levan ab Robert 
The most notable of the feats of Catherine, the battle of the 

bowls of boiling mead- wart 
Catherine of Henblas, Denbighshire 

Her residence uninjured by either the Yorkists or Lancas ■ 

tarians .... 

Visited by her cousin levan ab Robert, her political 

opponent .... 

His gentleness contrasted with the cruelty of the Herberts 

of the Yorkist faction 
England's duplicate set of nobles during the wars of the 

Roses . . . ; 

Catherine of France 

Her sister Isabella's marriage with king Richard II. 

Her father's insanity and its cause 

The court of France refuse to sanction a union between 

Isabella and Prince Henry 
Henry IV. refuses to return Isabella's dowry and jewels 
Henry V. falls in love with Catherine . 
A royal manceuvering mother baffled . 
Catherine married to the English king, becomes queen of 

England and queen-regent of France 
Death of Henry V. Catherine a widow and queen dowager 

at the age of twenty- one . 
Death of Catherine's father, Charles VI., king of France 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Her infant son, Henry VI., and her brother Charles VII., 

at the same time proclaimed kings of France . . 144 

Owen Tudor appears at court and dances before the queen ib. 
Catherine becomes deeply enamoured with him . .145 

Contracts a private marriage with him to the great dis- 
pleasure of the court and country . . . 146 
Whimsical prejudices against the Welsh in England . ib. 
The death of queen Catherine at Bermondsey Abbey . 148 
The children of Catherine and Owen Tudor . .149 
Owen Tudor imprisoned (after her death) for having mar- 
ried the king's mother without the consent of government 150 
Escapes from Newgate, retaken, and escapes again . 151 
The two sons of Owen Tudor knighted by their half-brother 

Henry VI. . . . . .152 

Owen Tudor enters the army and engages in the cause of 

the house of Lancaster .... ib. 
Taken prisoner by the Yorkists, and confined in Newport 

Castle . . . . . ib. 

A hundred gentlemen of North Wales march to rescue him 153 
Their success and masterly achievement in cutting their 

way through the Yorkist army . . . ib. 

Owen Tudor knighted, honours and possessions bestowed 

on him . . . . .154 

Taken prisoner at the battle of Mortimer's Cross and 

beheaded ..... 155 

General remarks on his life and character . .156 

The secret of dark import in his family . .158 

Catherine's illustrious female contemporaries — (notes). . 161 
Catherine of Berain .... 162 

Her portrait in Llewenni Hall, and print from it in 

"Yorke's Royal Tribes of Wales" . . . ib. 

Married successively to four men of rank . . 163 

Her son implicated in the Babington conspiracy and 

executed . . . . . . ib. 

Her second and third marriage promise given at the funeral 

of her first husband . . . . ib. 

Her death in the lifetime of her fourth husband . .164 

Her last husband, Edward Thelwal, the Welshman who 

could command his temper . + , . . ib. 

Cenai the Virgin .... 166 

»Vows perpetual celibacy, and dedicates her life to religion . ib. 
Her prayers supposed to have transformed serpents into 
stones . . . . . ib. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Camden and Theophilus Jones " on Nature's sporting a 

miracle' ' ; . . . .167 

Cressy's and Capgrave's records of her piety and devotion ib. 
Her miraculous well . . . .168 

Her death and prophesies .... 169 
Cordeilla, Daughter of King Leir . . 170 

The legend on which Shakspeare founded his tragedy . ib, 

Leir's questions, and the respective answers of his three 

daughters . . . . .171 

Cordeilla disgraced and her sisters honoured . . 172 

Married to Aganippus, a king of Gaul. . . 173 

Leir, in peril of his life, flies to Gaul, and is protected by 

Cordeilla . . . . . ib. 

His wrongs avenged. His death . . . 174 

Oppressed by her nephews Cordeilla kills herself . ib. 

Claudia, or Gwladys Ruffina . . . 175 

Supposed to have been a convert of St. Paul's, and the 

first British Christian . . . .177 

Martial's epigram on her beauty . . . ib. 

Translations by Roberts and Thackeray . . ib. 

Married to Pudens, a Roman. Martial's epigram on that 

event . . . . .178 

Claudia and Pudens the same persons mentioned by St. 

Paul in his epistle to Timothy. The question discussed, ib. 
Archbishop Usher's opinion that Claudia was the daughter 

of Caractacus . . . . . ib. 

Her three female contemporaries and converts to Chris- 
tianity . . . . . ib. 



THE 



HEROINES OF WELSH HISTORY; 

OR, 



PART THE THIRD. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Deethgee ( Dyddgu), mistress of the bard Davyth ab Gwilym 1 79 
Her graces, bodily and mental . . . ib. 

Extracts from her extraordinary lover's poems . 180 

Her virtues, and exemplary prudence . . .182 

Dolben (Emma), wife of the Rev. Dr. Hugh Williams . 183" 
Ancestress of numerous great families in North Wales . tb.*~~. 

Anecdote of her celebrated son Sir William Williams — (note) 184 * 
Dolly of Pentreath, supposed the last of the Cornish 

Britons who spoke that language . . . 185 

Affecting remarks on the extinction of a language . ib. 

Dolly's death, in 1778, at the great age of 102 years . 186 

Her epitaph in the old Cornish, with a translation . ib. 

Elyn Done, or Ellen Dwn . . . 187 

Sir Walter Scott's * Young Lochinvar" founded on the grand 

incident in her annals . . • ib. 

Ellen's two lovers . . . . ib. 

Her parents emigrate and take her with them to Cheshire . 188 
Their opposition to her union with David Myddelton . t&. 

Her rash promise to marry Richard Croton, and attempt to 

evade it . . . .189 

David Myddelton arrives at her residence on her wedding 

day too late to prevent the marriage . .191 

Murders the bridegroom and rides off with the bride . 192 

Crosses the Dee, brings her to the vale of Clewyd and marries 

her . . . . . ib. 

Ellen a maid, a bride, a widow, and a wife again, in one and 

the same day ..... 193 
Pennant's account of thes« events . , . ib. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

The Irish howl, or Scotch coranich, one of the habits of the 

Welsh in ancient times — fncte) . . . 193 

Drwynwen, fifth daughter of Brychan Brecheiniog . 194 

Dwynwen, twenty-sixth daughter of Brychan Brecheiniog . 195 

Eleanor de Montford, queen of Llewelyn ab Griffith . 196 

Llewelyn's alliance with her father Simon de Montford . 197 

A matrimonial union projected between Llewelyn and 
Eleanor . . . . . ib. 

Eleanor betrothed to Llewelyn . . .199 

On the death of her father Eleanor taken to Frauce to be 
educated in a nunnery .... ib. 

Llewelyn demands of the king of France the return of Elea- 
nor in order to be espoused — his request granted . 201 

Eleanor on her voyage to Wales taken prisoner by four En- 
glish ships from the port of Bristol . . . 202 

Llewelyn demands of Edward I. the release of Eleanor, and 
offers a large ransom for her liberation . , 203 

Edward, determined on the entire subjugation of Wales, 
refuses Llewelyn's demand, except on inadmissible terms ib. 

Edward renews the war against Llewelyn on an immense 
scale hitherto unknown . . . 204 

In pity to his army, females and children, oppressed by 
famine in the fastnesses of Snowdon, Llewelyn makes his 
submission to Edward .... ib. 

A peace on galling terms follows. Llewelyn enters London 
with Edward, then returns to Wales . . 205 

Edward demands the presence of Llewelyn to witness the 
opening of king Arthur's tomb at Glastonbury, which that 
prince refuses .... 206 

Edward, holding his court at Worcester, demands the pre- 
sence of Llewelyn to account for his late conduct, softening 
the mandate by an invitation to a feast, and a promise that 
his union with Eleanor should be the reward of his 
obedience . . - . . ib. 

Llewelyn's union with Eleanor celebrated at Worcester at 
Edward's expense. Galling terms^exacted . . 207 

The death of Eleanor in the year 1280 . . 208 

The history of Eleanor connected with the arms of the city 
of Bristol— (notes) . . . .210 

Ellen of the Mighty Host, a celebrated woman of the 

fourth century . . . .212 

The public events of her time — the Romans in Britain . 213 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
The connection of Maximus the tyrant with Britain . 215 

The marriage of Maximus with Ellen . . 216 

The feud between Maximus and Conan Meriadoc . 217 

Maximus hailedemperor by the licentious soldiery . 2 18 

A host of sixty thousand Britons raised by Ellen and her 

cousin to attend Maximus to Gaul . .219 

The partial success, ultimate failure, and death of Maximus . 221 
Conan Meriadoc conquers and becomes the first king of 

Armorica ..... 223 

Ellen said to have induced eleven thousand British virgins to 
embark for Armorica to become the wives of Conan 
Meriadoc's soldiery . . ... 226 

Failure of the expedition, shipwreck, and death of the virgins 227 
Anecdote favourable to the character of Maximus . 228 

Elfleda, Daughter or Alfred the Great . . 229 

Her love adventure and union with Edelred earl of Mercia. ib. 
Deaths of her illustrious father and her husband . . 231 

Apology for her assumption of male attire and the warrior's 

gear . . . . .233 

Engages and defeats Hwgan lord of Brecon . . ib. 

Takes his wife and thirty-three of her people prisoners . 234 
Her war-like deeds, building and repairing of cities, &c. . 235 
Her death at Tamworth in the year 920 . . ib. 

Additional account of her by Pennant . . . 236 

Emma (The Lady,) wife of Griffith ab Madoc, lord of Dinas 

Bran and Lower Powys . . . 238 

Her influence as an Englishwoman said to have biassed her 
husband in his anti-patriotism towards his native land 
disproved ..... 239 

Her exemplary character as a wife and mother . . 241 

Held in affectionate regard by her husband and sons . ib. 

The English guardians of her grandchildren abuse their trust 

and murder them to obtain their estates . . 243 

Her wrongs from her own countrymen, and death . 245 

Emma the great great great grandmother of Owen Glen- 
dower, or Owain Glyndwr . . . 246 
Essyllt, Queen of Mervyn Vyrch, king of all Wales and 

the Isle of Man . . . .247 

Hostilities between her father and his brother Howel . ib. 

Howel, in his reverses, generously entertained by Mervyn Vyrch 248 

Howel's gratitude brings about the union of his niece Essyllt 

with the king of the Isle of Man, A. D. 820 . . ib. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
The public events of her time . . . 249 

The island of Mona taken by Egbert, and its name changed 

to Anglesea ..... 250 
The city of Chester also taken by him, and the brazen statues 

of Cadwallon pulled down and defaced . . 251 

The malignity of Redburga (Egbert's queen) towards the , 

Welsh . . . . . ib. 

Death of queen Essyllt. Her pedigree traced . . 252 

Evan (Megan Verch,) or Margaret Evans, a very extra- 
ordinary woman of the eighteenth century . . 253 
Her numerous acquisitions, tastes, and talents . . ib. 
Compared with Catherine I. of Russia . . 255 
A glance at the spurious " Lives" of Catherine . . ib. 
Fleer, Wife or Cassivelauncjs . . . 256 
Her abduction by Murchan, king of Gascony . . 258 
The great expedition for her rescue, and its entire success . 259 
The distinctions of Cassivelaunus according to the Welsh 
Triads . . . . .261 
Fraid ( Saint) patroness of the churches designated Llan- 

santfraid, St, Bride, and St. Bridget . . .262 

The favourate saints of the Welsh . . . ib. 



THE 



HEROINES OF WELSH HISTORY; 



OR, 



fflmmz nf % feklrrntrti Wmm nf Wnlw. 



PARTS THE FOURTH AND FIFTH. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Fraid (Saint), her Life continued. . . 263 

Born in Ireland, A. D. 453; of illegitimate birth . ib. 

Her vow of perpetual virginity received by St. Meb, 

a disciple of St. Patrick .... ib. 
As foundress of a community of nuns becomes very 

popular . . . ^ . ib. 

Her legend in verse and miracles attributed to her . ib. 

Sails from Ireland on a green turf and arrives at Holyhead. 264 

The gullibility of the childish public of her time . ib. 

The eighteen churches dedicated to her in Wales named . ib. 

General notes to her life .... 265 

Roman and British systems of saint-making compared . ib. 
Gadarn (The Lady Hawys). — Of the royal race of 

Powys ..... 267 

The law of gavel-kind — its ill effects illustrated . . ib. 



CONTENTS. 

Page 
Her father's forethought for her protection — his death . 268 
Placed under the guardianship of five uncles . . ib. 

Four of them combine to seclude her in a nunnery . 269 

Noble conduct of her uncle William . . . ib. 

Welsh and English laws on the rights of women. . ib. 

Proves quick-witted, prudent, and beautiful . . 270 

Her daring resolution to seek the English king's protection 271 

Her flight, perilous journey, and arrival in England . 273 

Her petition granted, on the terms of marrying an 

Englishman . . . . . ib. 

Creates a sensation among "the curious in heiresses'' . ib. 

Admired and courted by Sir John Charlton . . ib. 

Married to him — when he is created Lord Powys . ib. 

Her triumphant return to Wales contrasted with her flight 274 

Hostile measures against her fraudulent uncles . . ib. 

Three of them captured, and the fourth pursued , 275 

English confederates of the refractory uncles accounted 

for . . . . . . ib. 

English speculation in Welsh heiresses . . ib. 

The jarrings of law and lances ultimately settled . 277 

Her uncle William's favourable terms in the adjustment . ib. 

Her husband's death, A.D. 1353, and her own soon after . 278 
Gethin (Ellen), or Ellen the Terrible. — In the 

time of Henry VI. . • . . . 279 

Her brother and self representatives of the Vaughans of 

Hergest . . . . ib. 

Shon Heer of Talgarth their cousin — rival families . 280 

Disputes on points of family precedence — their folly . ib. 

The fatal fight between the cousins — David Vaughan 

killed . . . .281 

Her grief, rage, and resolution to destroy the slayer of 

her brother . . . . . ib. 

Goes disguised in male attire to seek Shon Heer . 282 

Shoots him through the heart while pretending to aim at 
a target . . . . .283 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Married to Thomas ab Rosser, grandson of Sir David 
Gam . . . . . 284 

Defended against the modern charge of being " a devilish 

woman" . . . . . ib. 

Celebrated by the bard Lewis Glyncothi . . 285 

Renewal of the " Wars of the Roses" which led to the 

battle of Danesmoor .... 286 

The battle lost, her husband and 5000 Welshmen killed . 290 
Her brothers-in-law, Earl Herbert and Sir Richard Her- 
bert, taken prisoners and beheaded. . .291 

The bard Lewis Glyncothi celebrates their prowess . 292 

The bard an officer of the Yorkists while a spy of the 

Lancasterians . .... ib. 
Her patronage of the bards and minstrels . .. 293 
Her death, and family monument at Kington, Hereford- 
shire . . . . . ib. 
Glendower's (Owen) Female Family . . 294 
A sketeh of his eventful life . . . 295 
Successes against England. . . . 297 
Proclaimed and crowned sovereign prince of Wales . 298 
His pretensions to royal descent examined . • 299 
His wife the Lady Margaret's celebrity . . ib. 
His daughters Alicia, Janet, and Jane — their marriages . 300 
His daughters Mevanwy and Gwenllian noticed . 301 
His princely residence and boundless hospitality described 
by Iolo Goch . . . . .302 
Grjecina (Pomponia). — Wife of the first Roman governor 

of Britain . . . . .303 

Embraces a strange foreign superstition (Christianity) . ib. 

Her trial on the charge and acquittal . . . ib. 

Her secret interdicted faith, and perpetual sadness . ib. 

Forms a " Triban" with Gwladys, Ruffina, and Tecla, the 

three Roman-British earliest Christians . . 304 

Gwawr. — The sixth daughter of Brychan Brecheiniog . 303 

Her connexions and marriage , . . ib. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Becomes the mother of the illustrious Llywarch Hen . 306 
The heroic elegies of Llywarch Hen noticed ; . ib. 

Gwenhwyvar and the Old woman of Anglesea . . 308 

Her husband, a prisoner to the Yorkists, condemned to 

death . . . . .309 

Earl Herbert, the general of the Yorkists, cruel and 

merciless . , . . . ib. 

Discussion on the names Herbert and Hirbert . .310 

Her solemn prediction on the beheading of her husband . 312 
The Old Woman of Anglesea, her formal curse on 

Herbert . . . . .313 

The ferocity of the Wars of the Roses , . ib. 

Retribution on the cruelty of the Herberts . . 316 

The heroism of Sir Richard Herbert. . . ib 

The gallantry of Davydd ab Ievan ab Eineon . . ib. 

The burial places of the two Herberts . .317 

Gwenllian. — The sixteenth daughter of Brychan Bre- 

cheiniog ..... 318 

Becomes the mother of Caradoc Vraich Vras . . ib. 

Caradoc of the Brawny Arm — the noblest of Arthur's 

knights . . . . .319 

Gwenllian. — Heiress of the Vale ot Clewyd . . 321 

The origin and meaning of the word " Gwenllian" . ib. 

Her parentage and great possessions. . . 323 

Illustration of the phrase " a devilish desirable woman" . ib. 
Gwenllian. — Daughter of Prince Griffith ab Kunnan . 324 

Beloved by Griffith, son of Prince Rees ab Tudor . ib. 

Sketch of his early life . . . . 325 

Finds refuge in Ireland till twenty-five years of age . ib. 

Aims to recover the sovereignty of South Wales. . 327 

Suspicious conduct of Griffith ab Kunnan . . 328 

Her father invited to visit Henry I. . . . 329 

Howel, the younger brother of Griffith ab Rees, escapes 

from custody. . . • • 330 

Degeneracy of the Welshmen of this period . . 330 



CONTENTS. 

£age. 
The Lady Nest, sister of Griffith and Howel . .331 

The wily Henry contrasted with the simplicity of Griffith 

ab Kunnan . . . . . 332 

Henry's murderous scheme thwarted . . . 333 

The young princes in peril of their lives protected by the 

church . . . . . ib. 

Her father's attempt to violate the sanctuary resisted by the 

priesthood . . . . . ib. 

The princes escape to South Wales . . . ib. 

The union of Gwenllian and Prince Griffith . . 335 

Owen Gwyneth and Cadwalader, the brothers of Gwenllian 336 

Ystrad Towey forest the refuge of Griffith and Gwenllian . 337 
Commencement of hostilities against the Normans and 

Flemings ..... 338 

Griffith takes several castles . . . ib. 

His name becomes a terror to his foes , . 339 

Wins the confidence of his countrymen . . 340 

Takes the castle of Kidwelly for his residence . . 312 

His heroic reputation at its height . . . 343 

His reverses commence . , . . ib. 

His failure and discomfiture at Aberystwith . . 34?4 

Returns to Ystrad Towey defeated and broken in 

spirit . . . . .348 
Assassins to murder Griffith employed by Henry I. . 348 
Owen, ab Cadwgan, and Llywarch ab Trahaern, their hor- 
rible devastations .... 349 
Gwenllian and her young family escape from the fired forest 3o0 
Evil fortunes ofihe family, deserted by all the:r followers, 

become fugitives in the land of their sovereignty . ib. 

Rebellion of the Welsh vassals of the English crown . 351 

Griffith, in his destitution, accepts certain scanty domains 

from the English king .... 352 
Deprived of them, under false charges — a fugitive once 

more ..... 353 

Shelters again in Ystrad Towey forest . . ib. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
His friends return — Molests the English as before . 354 

Death of Henry I Political reaction . . 355 

Brightening prospects of the royal fugitives . . ib. 

- Determined attempts of Griffith to recover his crown . ib. 

A memorable Eisteddvod held in Ystrad Towey forest, . 356 
Griffith and his son Rees depart to raise forces in North 

Wales . . . . .357 

Gwenllian presides over the army in the south . . 358 

Leads them to Kidwelly. — Posted on Mynydd y Garreg 361 
A sortie from the castle. — Her forces driven in with terrible 

slaughter . .... 362 

Her gallantry in the most trying hour — Her son Maelgwn 

killed at her side. — Destruction of the Welsh forces . 363 
Taken prisoner with her son Morgan . . . ib. 

Beheaded by order of her captor, Maurice de, Londres . 364 

Her character Maes Gwenllian . . . 365 

Consternation of Griffith and royal family of North Wales 367 
Measures of vengeance taken by them . . 368 

The people rise en masse for revenge and national enfran- 
chisement ..... 370 
The annihilation of the English army under Ranulph, earl 

of Chester . . . . .371 

The triumph of the Welsh and expulsion of the English . ib. 
Death of Griffith ab Rees and his royal father-in-law . 372 
General notes to the life of Gwenllian . . 374 

Suggestions for the improvement of modern Eisteddvods . 375 
" The meeting of the bards," by Mrs. Hemans . . ib. 

Gwenllian, daughter of Owen Glendower . 378 

Gwenllian, of Llwyn Tren . . . 379 

Gwenllian (the lady), wife of Sir Griffith Llwyd . 381 
The bard Casnodyn's famous poem in her praise . ib. 

Sketch of her husband's memorable career . . 383 

Gwervil Hael, of Abertaned . . . 386 

Gwervil, wife of David Lloyd ab Llewelyn . . 388 

Gwynn (Mistress Eleanor), or Nell Gwynn . 291 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Compared with other royal mistresses . . t'6. 

The idol of popular tradition . . . 392 

As an orar. ge girl, a comedian's mistress, and an actress . 393 

An unrivalled speaker of Prologues and Epilogues . 394 

The Mistress of Lord Buckhurst . . . ib.. 

Admired by the king, who bribes her protector to resign 

her, with an earldom and a pension. . . ib. 

Retires from the stage in 1671 as " Madame Ellen" . 395 

Her liberal and disinterested character . . 396 

Liberates a clergyman by paying his debt . . t'6. 

Chelsea college suggested and finished by her influence . t'6. 

Her generous defence of Bishop Ken n . . t'6. 

Her appointment as Lady of the Privy Chamber to the 

Queen censured ... . . 357 

Her son created duke of St. Albans . . . 399 

Historical parallels— Charles II. and Henry I. note . t'6. 

Queen Charlotte and Nell Gwynn's picture . . 401 

gwladys (the princess) eldest daughter of brychan 

Brecheiniog .... 402 

Becomes the mother of Cammarch, Cynider, and Catwg . 403 

The eminence of Catwg, abbot of Llancarvon . . t'6. 

gwladys ddu (the lady) daughter of llewelyn ab 

Iorwerth ..... 405 
Her first husband Reginald de Breos, one of King John's 

burly barons . . . . t'6. 

His political faithlessness. — Clemency of Llewelyn ab 

Iorwenh ..... 408 

Her twelve years' widowhood. — Marries the baron, Ralph 

Mortimer ..... 409 
Mortimer's attachment to English interests, and hostility 

to the Welsh . , . . .410 

Her interference for liberating her disinherited brother . t'6. 
Becomes presumptive heiress to the crown of North 

Wales . . . . . ib. 

Fatality to Wales of English royal marriages . . 412 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Her connecting historical links up to Edward IV. and on- 
ward to Queen Victoria . . .413 

GWLADYS (THE LADY) DAUGHTER OF SIR DAVID GAM . 416 

Her father's history. — His perfidy to Owen Glendower . 417 
His attempt to assassinate Owen baffled — His ten years' 

imprisonment . . * .418 

Her mother murdered and home burnt to the ground by 

Owen Glendower . . . .419 

Her first marriage to Robert Vychan, of Bredwardine . 422 
Her son Thomas married to Ellen Gethin . . 423 

Her father, son, and two husbands, four of the heroes of 

Agincourt • . . ib. 

Details of the battle of Agincourt . . . 424 

Her father's famous reply respecting the strength of the 

French . . . . .427 

The English afflicted with the bloody flux fight breechless 430 



HEROINES OF WELSH HISTORY; 

or, 
PARTS SIXTH AND SEVENTH. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Gwladys (The Lady) — Continued . . . 431 

Her father David Gam and his Brecknock compatriots at the 

battle of Agincourt .... ib. 

King Henry's life saved by the Welshmen . . 443 

Gwlady's father and husband killed in the battle. . ib. 

Her second husband Sir William ab Thomas,lord of Rhaglan 

Castle . . . . .445 

Her son, Sir Roger Vaughan's marriage . . 447 

The Welsh heroes of Agincourt introduce and patronize the 

English language in Monmouthshire . . ib. 

Her sons, the renowned brothers, William Herbert, earl of 

Pembroke, and Sir Richard Herbert, of Coldbrook . ib. 

Her second husband's death in 1446 . -. . 440 

The death of Gwladys in 1454, and commencement of the 

York and Lancaster civil wars . . . ib. 

Her great funeral and burial in the Priory Church, Aber- 
gavenny . . . . . ib. 
Maud de Haia, wife of the detestable William de Breos, lord 

of Brecknock . . . .412 

Called " the Semiramis of Brecknock," and " e Moll Walbee" 443 
Extravagant Tales respecting her . . . ib. 

Her atrocious husband's murderous exploits . .444 

He causes his guests, the Welsh chieftains, to be massacred 
in Abergavenny castle . . . 445 



CONTENTS. 

Page.- 
His savage murder of Trahaern Vychan, lord of Langorse 

avenged ; when 3700 Welshmen were slain . . 446 

Maud designated " a malapert woman" . . 447 

Her spirited answer to King John, and its consequence . ib. 
King John's grievances from the dishonesty of Maud and 

her husband, a singular piece of history . . ib. 

Maud's audacity " when driven into a corner" . . 452 

Her singular and tragic death to satiate King John's revenge ib. 
Her husband dies a beggar's death, in France . . ib. 

Assumption of piety by this murderous miscreant. . 453 

.^^Origin of the Norman race — Contrasted with the Saxons . 454 
Trevor Hanmer, of a high Flintshire family, a Welsh Nun 457 
Whimsical anecdote of her "blind obedience" . . ib. 

Her father cup-bearer to King Charles I. and her mother 

maid of honour to his Queen . . . 457 

Taken by her parents to France when ten years old . 459 

Falls into the hands of the proselyting Jesuits. at Paris . 459 

Their insidious modes of imposing on her childish imagination ib. 
Becomes romantically attached to the notion of becoming 

a Nun. . . . . .460 

Her mother dies and her father enters into a second marriage 461 
Alarmed at her Papistic predilictions, her father places her 

with a Huguenot family, and returns alone to England . ib, 
Her protectors contemplate adopting her as their heiress . 462 
These views destroyed by the arrival of her father, who 

returns with her to England . . . ib. 

Her desire to become a Nun becomes a ruling passion . ib. 
Monastic institutions at variance with natural affection and 

filial obedience .... 463 

Her practical austeries and fanatical passion for the veil 

increased ..... 464 

Her father inconsiderately consents to her taking the veil . 465 
Father Hanmer, the Jesuit, suggests the necessity of her 

dower, as "a bride of the church" . . . ib. 

Lady Hanmer objects, and her father recalls his consent . 466 
Her whimsical expedient of becoming an amateur maltster, 

to raise funds for her Nun's dower . . . 467 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Determines on a life of celebacy, as a step towards the attain- 
ment of the veil .... 468 
Her beauty and mental qualifications. — A general dismissal 

of all her suitors .... 470 

Meets Sir John Warner at Oliver Cromwell's funeral . 471 
Becomes Lady Warner .... 472 
Revival of her passion for the Nun's veil, when the mother 

of two daughters .... 473 

Persuades her husband to becomes a Papist . . 474 

Sir John consents to her taking the veil and resolves on 

becoming a monk . . . . 475 

Her overwhelming fanaticism and success in making Papistic 

converts . . . . . ib. 

Lady Warner and family embark for France . . 476 

Her travels and tribulatious in search of monastic misery . 477 
Takes the Noviciate habit among the nuns of St. Sepul- 

chrine, at Liege .... ib. 

Assumes the name and style of Sister Teresa Clare . ib. 

Captivated by their rigorous discipline, becomes a sister of 

the " Poor Clares of Graveling," at Dunkirk . . 478 

Absurd instances of her " Blind Obedience" . . ib. 

Dies ; with the character of a highly exemplary Nun . 479 

Her monument and eulogistic inscription . . ib. 

Hannah Moore and Dr. Johnson's sentiments on Con- 
ventual Life . . . . .480 
The Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the 
Great . . . . .481 
The strange vagaries of her father " Old King Coel of Coel- 

chester" . . . . .482 

Married to the Roman Governor Constantius Chlorus . 485 
Julia Domna, and other Roman ladies, notieed . . 487 

The Ladies' Work-table eulogized . . .488 

Tenth Persecution of the Christians under Dioclecian . 489 
Wisdom, liberality, and good government of Constantius . 493 
Constantius repudiates Helena and marries Theodora, in 

order to be nominated Caesar . . , 495 

On becoming emperor is re-united to Helena , . 497 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Death of Constantius and elevation of Constantine . ib. 

The Sepulchral lamp burning 300 years. Note . . 498 

Constantine's memorable conversion to Christianity . 499 

Helena's pious works in the Holy Land . . 501 

Three successive Temples at Jerusalem . . ib. 

Helena's discovery of the true cross . . . 503 

The false opinions, miracles, and Church History of the 

Papists . . . . .504 

Helena venerated by the Christians of Britain . . 505 

Her noble works in Britain, while Empress Consort and 

Empress Mother . . . . 507 

The Legend of the London stone . . . ib. 

The Death of Helena . . . .508 

Joan, second queen of Prince Llewelyn ab lorwerth . 509 

Her beauty and captivating manners. . . ib. 

Birth of her son, Prince David . . .511 

Tradition of Bedd Gelart .... ib. 
Joan stimulates the bad feeling between Prince Griffith and 

his father ..... 513 

Dark passages in her life .... 514 
Proves a faithless wife and a harsh stepmother . .515 

A traitress to Wales and an English spy . .516 

Her amour with the Baron Y^illiam de Breos — His character 518 
Anecdote, English superstition in King John's days . 520 

William de Breos hanged by order of Llewelyn . . 523 

Joan disgraced. Dies in 1236 . . . 525 

Llewelyn ab lorwerth's clemency and generosity . . 529 

Fragmentary history of Llanvaes monastery . . 532 

Curious account of queen Joan's stone coffin ; a relic of 

centuries ..... 533 

The Lady Matilda de Longspee, cousin of Prince 

Llewelyn ab Griffith . . . 535 

Correct account of the last days, death, and burial of the last 

native Welsh sovereign. .... 536 
Llewelyn's flight from Aberedwy castle towards Builth . 539 
Refused admittance into Builth castle, flies along the banks 

of the Irvon . . . . 541 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Pursued by the English, and slain by Adam de Francton, at 

" Cwm Llewelyn" . . . .542 

The generous interference of Lady Matilda to obtain Christian 

burial for the prince unavailing . . ib. 

The barbarous mutilation of the prince's remains . 544 
Saint Monacella, daughter of an Irish monarch, a Religious 

Recluse ..... 545 
Secluded at Llangunnog, Montgomeryshire, for fifteen 

years, without seeing a human face . . . ib. 
Discovered and favored by Brochwel Yscythrog, prince of 

Powys . . . . , ib. 

A superstition of amiable tendency . . . 546 

Monacella' s mission of mercy expatiated on . . ib. 

Prince Brochwell and the Monks of Bangor . . 547 

Sir Walter Scotts's ballad on the massacre of the Monks . ib. 
Morvyth of Mona, the renowned mistress of the bard Da- 

vydd ab Gwylim .... 549 
Chaucer and Davydd ab Gwylim contemporaries . 550 
Presents of wine to Ladies explained historically . ib. 
Morvyth's extraordinary matrimonial union with the Bard . 551 
Forcibly separated from him and united to " Bwa Bach" . 552 
Flies from her tyrant and rejoins the Bard . . ib. 
" Bwa Bach" recovers her, and imprisons the Bard . ib. 
The Bard liberated and his fine paid by the men of Gla- 
morgan ..... 552 
Morvyth becomes the subject of 147 Love Poems . 553 
Her Lover, a Welsh Bon Juan . . . ib. 
His adventure with twenty-four sweethearts . . ib. 
His poetical contemporaries — a glance at his times . 557 
His contempt for the friars and respect for the Church . 558 
Some account of his poems and latter days . . 559 
Nest, Queen op Trahaern ab Caradoc . . 562 
Her husband contemporary with Edward the Confessor and 

Macbeth . . . . . ib' 

Her father's misconduct on a memorable occasion . 553 
Fleance, the son of Banquo, received and protected at her 

father's court . . . . . ib. 



&*5 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Her illicit connection with that ungrateful fugitive, who 

suffers death in consequence . . . 564 

Birth of her son Walter, who becomes the founder of the 
Royal race of Stuart. . . . . ib. 

The posterity of Walter and Nest on the thrones of Scotland 
and England . . . . . ib. 

The murder of Nest's father and his throne seized by the 
murderous usurpers .... 566 

Nest and her three brothers fly for their lives . . 567 

Two of her brothers perish in the wars . . ib. 

Nest married to Trahaern ab Caradoc, elected to the sove- 
reignty of North Wales . . . 568 

Her royal husband defeated and killed at the battle of Carno ib. 

Her two children Llywarch and Nest . . . 569 

Nest (daughter of the last named), wife of Bernard de New- 
march ..... 570 

Numerous errors of Theophilus Jones in recounting her 
history . . . . . ib. 

Her marriage with a private individual disowned . . 573 

The three notorious Welsh assassins in English pay . ib. 

Nest married to the conqueror of Brecknock . . 575 

Her son Mahael of doubtful paternity . . . ib. 

Mahael's impatience of maternal controul and personal 
ambition • 576 

Nest's mysterious visitor, "the unknown knight" . . 577 

Mahael, ignorant of his paternity, kills his father . 572 

Nest declares him illegitimate — the consequence . 580 

Anne Thomas, of Creyddyn . . . 581 

Her wonderful adventure and escape from drowning . ib. 

Her Lover's equally miraculous escape from life peril on the 
same day . . . . . ib. 

The perils of Penmaenmawr's tremendous passage . 582 

Mevanwv Vechan, of Dinas Bran . . . 585 

Beloved and celebrated by a renowned Bard . . ib. 

Described as beautiful, graceful, and amiable . . 586 

The Manuscript of her Story partially translated, as discovered 
in the ruins of Dinas Bran castle . . . ib. 



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